Gold Looks Good For Cup Repeat

Alexander Goldrun arrived in Hong Kong last Friday to prepare to defend her Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup crown on December 11 that she took home to Ireland from Sha Tin last year.

The Jim Bolger-trained filly is reported to be in as good a form as she was last season even though her latest efforts might not look that impressive. Her trainer, Jim Bolger, takes the blame for that. He said: 'I should never have allowed her to run at Newmarket last time. The ground was soft and loose and she hated it. I cannot think why I made that mistake. I am a very slow learner!'

'We´ll have to see how she is when I arrive in Hong Kong on Tuesday (6 December) but I think she is in as good a condition as last year.'

Alexander Goldrun could only finish eighth in the Champion Stakes behind David Junior last time out, a race in which the Japan Cup winner Alkaased finished fifth. The ground was soft and slippery that day and many of the leading fancies ran below par. It was also on the soft side when she finished third to big outsider, Kinnaird, in the slowly run Prix de l´Opera at Longchamp on October 2 but she showed all her Hong Kong Cup sparkle when winning the Group One Nassau Stakes at Goodwood and Group One Pretty Polly Stakes very comfortably on fast going at The Curragh in the summer.

In last year´s Cup, Alexander Goldrun, brilliantly ridden by her regular pilot, Kevin Manning, got up to beat the locally-trained Bullish Luck by a short-head in a thrilling finish.

BRITAIN´S top middle-distance filly, Ouija Board, has been given the all-clear to line for the HK$14 million Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase over 2400 metres at Sha Tin on December 11.

Ouija Board´s trainer, Ed Dunlop, had been undecided whether to run his four-year-old in the Vase or the Cup after her fine fifth to Alkaased in the Japan Cup on November 27 but Alkaased´s defection from the Vase made his mind up for him.

Dunlop said on 30 November: 'Ouija Board had been 75% certain to run in the Vase but now Alkaased doesn´t go that is the race we´ll go for. Ouija Board lost very little weight as a result of her good run in Japan and has retained her form well.

I think she would have finished closer if she hadn´t got a little bump inside the final furlong. On reflection it is possible she went too soon. Kieren (Fallon) felt he kicked on too early but I am not complaining with her effort in finishing fifth.'

Ouija Board will go into the Vase with only four outings this year under her belt. A midsummer-injury delayed the reappearence of the 2004 Breeders Cup Filly & Mare Turf heroine and has limited her to only four outings so far this year but she ran another fine race to finish second to Intercontinental on good going in the same race at Belmont Park this October.

But Dunlop was worried the going might have been too firm for his filly in Japan. He said: 'I was petrified the going was too fast for even her in Tokyo. I had no idea how she would stand up to it after her trouble with a fractured splint and then a quarter-crack this year but she came out of it with no problem. She is such a good mover.

She will prefer the ground at Sha Tin which will be more forgiving. She takes her travelling around the world so well, she just eats and sleeps so she´s taking the simple hop from Japan to Hong Kong in her stride.'

The same cannot be said of Dunlop´s other contender for Hong Kong glory. His five-year-old, Court Masterpiece, who arrived last Friday for the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile has never been further than France where he beat Caradak in the Prix de la Foret at Longchamp on October 1.

'It will be new to him but he is in good form.'