News

Sacred Kingdom Crowned Champion Sprinter

2nd Jul 2009

Breednet - Tara Madgwick - Thursday, 2 July 2009

At the end of season Champion Awards in Hong Kong on Wednesday Australian bred sprinter Sacred Kingdom was again crowned Champion Sprinter and also voted Most Popular Horse, while evergreen performer Viva Pataca (GB) took out the top prize as HK Horse of the Year.

Click here to see all the winners

HKJC Release - Viva Pataca (GB) (Marju), a seven-time Group One winner, was crowned Horse of the Year as well as the Champion Middle-Distance and Champion Stayer at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Champion Awards presentation ceremony today (1 July) during the final race meeting of the 2008/09 season at Sha Tin Racecourse.

Sacred Kingdom (AUS) (Encosta de Lago) and Douglas Whyte were elected the Most Popular Horse of the Year and Most Popular Jockey of the Year respectively.

During the 2008/09 season, Viva Pataca won four Group races and two of those were at the highest level locally, including a second victory in the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (HK G1-2000m) and a terrific third success in the Citi Champions & Chater Cup (HK G1-2400m). The seven-year-old also ran a respectable second in the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup (G1-2000m).

Good Ba Ba (USA) (Lear Fan) was again named Champion Miler. The seven-year-old won the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile (G1-1600m) for a second year in track record time, followed by a second victory in a row in the Citi Stewards' Cup (HK G1-1600m). At the end of May he was rated the second-highest rated horse in the world with an international rating of 124, the highest ever granted to a HK horse.

Sacred Kingdom earned the title of Champion Sprinter for the second year in concession. The world's top-ranked turf sprinter overcame an injury and returned to the winner's circle appeared after a nose verdict in The Sprint Cup (HK G2-1200m). The five-year-old regained world champion ascendancy with an international rating of 124 after edging out the unbeaten Singapore star Rocket Man in the KrisFlyer International Sprint (SIN G1-1200m) in track record time at Kranji.

Royal Flush (IRE) (Acclamation) was chosen as Champion Griffin. The three-year-old bay colt was a very easy winner on his fourth and final griffin outing before landing the Juvenile Sprint Trophy from the many of the best of his peers.

The Most Improved Horse award went to More Bountiful (NZ) (Van Nistelrooy), who won sixth times from Class 4 to Gr.2 in his maiden season to earn an increase of 72 points in rating. He made the biggest single leap in the local ratings this decade - 21lbs - after a decisive success in the Chairman's Trophy (HK G2-1600m). He ran second in the Mercedes-Benz HK Classic Mile (HK G1-1600m).

Caspar Fownes captured his second Champion Trainer title with 68winners. In addition to the Most Popular Jockey of the Year, Douglas Whyte collected the jockeys' premiership for the ninth consecutive year with 96 wins, while Matthew Chadwick became Champion Apprentice Jockey in his first Hong Kong debut season with a record-breaking 43 wins.

Members of the public cast a record total of 380,418 votes, an increase of 22% in comparison with last season (312,815 votes), between 1 and 15 June to decide the Most Popular Horse and Most Popular Jockey of the Year. Among various voting channels, the Club's 106 Off-Course Betting Branches received most votes representing 76.3% of the total votes, while the website www.hkjc.comcollected 16.6 of total votes.

The three horses and jockeys with the highest number of votes were as follows:

Most Popular Horse (190,395 votes)

1. Sacred Kingdom - 61,529
2. Viva Pataca - 58,895
3. Good Ba Ba - 34,771

Most Popular Jockey (190,023 votes)

1. Douglas Whyte - 65,735
2. Brett Prebble - 65,441
3. Matthew Chadwick - 30,366

Elsewhere, five-time winner Big Profit (NZ) (Howbaddoyouwantit) claimed the 2007 Hong Kong International Sale Bonus of HK$1m by accumulating stakes money of $4,124,875 from his 14 starts to date.

The Judging Panel announced the 2008/09 winners in the categories as follows: