Charity Glory Takes The Million Challenge
Charity Glory was crowned the Hong Kong Airlines Million Challenge victor at Happy Valley tonight, but the series winner was no match for the ascendant Ivictory in the Class 3 Blue Pool Handicap (1200m).
“I told the owner at the start of the season that the plan with Charity Glory was to win the Million Challenge,” said trainer Danny Shum, who won the competition two years ago with Speedy Longwah. “You have to have a horse with a low enough rating and he was a horse that had shown me that he had potential for this season.”
Owners Ng Sun-wah and Chan Wo-ping took the HK$650,000 winner’s cheque, their six-year-old having accrued 49 points from two wins, two seconds, a third and one fourth place at the city track since this term’s challenge kicked off in September.
With none of the gelding’s rivals for the top spot able to notch points on the nine-race card, Charity Glory’s eighth in the night’s penultimate contest was ultimately an irrelevance.
Ivictory’s performance, on the other hand, was bursting with relevance. John Size’s four-year-old made it five wins from six career starts in the 12-runner sprint, and he did so with ease.
By Ritesh Jamkhedkar - ritesh.jamkhedkar@secretariatsworld.com