INDIVIDUALLY or collectively, the major races that now figure on FWD Champions Day have regularly featured in the world’s Top 100 G1 Races, as measured by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities’ formula since their expansion from 50 to the full century in 2015. However, 2024, fingers crossed, could be the best ever.
Praise must go to Romantic Warrior and Golden Sixty for pushing the qualifying ratings of the FWD QEII Cup and FWD Champions Mile respectively to levels that are recognised internationally, while the third member of the Group 1 trio, the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, has always held its own.
The IFHA’s league table of the year’s top Group or Grade 1 races was introduced in 2013 and extended to 100 two years later, using a basis of the average end-of-year ratings determined by its panel of handicappers, using the first four finishers in each qualifying event around the world.
Positions in the table were decided on a three-year average for the first two years, before annual publication of the results provided a more immediate and obvious picture of placings. The best comparisons for Champions Day come from 2018 onwards, when split weekends of important racing were amalgamated to create the second biggest day in the Hong Kong calendar.
The QEII Cup was added to a programme that already included the Champions Mile and Chairman’s Sprint Prize, and the circle was completed in 2019, when insurance brand FWD took over sponsorship of the QEII Cup and Champions Mile.
In this period, 18 slots have been opened up for the three Champions Day qualifiers to make their mark in the top 100, and to their huge credit, they have missed the target only four times, with extenuating circumstances on more than one occasion.
The QEII Cup has twice missed the cut. In 2018, when eight ran, the enigmatic Pakistan Star beat Gold Mount by three lengths and favourite Time Warp crushed the chances of a decent average for the top four finishers by trailing in last.
In 2020, when restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and quarantine difficulties for Australian horses that were outside the control of Hong Kong Jockey Club officials hampered arrangements, only seven ran – three trained by Tony Cruz and two outsiders from Tony Millard ‘s stable, and odds-on Exultant won narrowly from second favourite Furore.
The Champions Mile of 2019 dropped out of the list after seven went to post and even-money favourite Beauty Generation beat rivals including Conte and Singapore Sling. The Chairman’s Sprint Prize went the same way in 2021, when the attraction of a 13-runner field is probably the best reflection of its overall quality, with Wellington getting a rare moment in the spotlight by beating Computer Patch, with the hot favourite Danon Smash missing ratings qualification in sixth place.
For the rest, though, the top 100 qualification has been a given, with the first FWD-backed QEII Cup of 2019 reaching tenth overall, on the back of Win Bright’s narrow success over Exultant, Lys Gracieux and Glorious Forever, and the same year’s Chairman’s Sprint Prize making 27th place thanks to the victory of Beat The Clock over Rattan, Little Giant and Santa Ana Lane, the Australian whose example has unfortunately waned in subsequent years.
These are the best individual examples in the amalgamate Champions Day period, but collectively the peak was reached last year, which says much for the return on investment of extra prize-money and a supportive sponsor.
Last year’s fixture also provided the ultimate justification for bringing together the three major races. Whereas the day’s attendance had hovered around an average of 25,000 with a two-race highlight, the addition of the QEII Cup took the crowd up to 48,242 in 2018, and last year, after three years of deprivation based on Covid restrictions, it leaped to 54,000.
And so to this year, when the appearance of one British-trained runner in each race is a welcome return to something like normality, and California Spangle’s moving on from success in Dubai to a tilt at the Chairman’s Sprint Prize is also a throwback to another decade.
The portents are good, based on the top four rated horses in each race. If they all run to form and maintain their ratings to the end of the year, the FWD QEII Cup would return a figure of 120.5, the FWD Champions Mile 119.25 and the Chairman’s Sprint Prize 117.
All that is required is for Romantic Warrior, Golden Sixty and California Spangle to be pushed to their limits, and maybe beyond. The prospect is tantalising.
By Howard Wright, HKJC
