Simply Brilliant takes the Gr.1 Chevalier Cup with Brilliance
Simply Brilliant delivered a 'magnifique' performance under jockey Alexis Badel taking the Gr.1 The Chevalier Cup in Hong Kong.
Simply Brilliant may have covered ground but was “in a rhythm” according to his rider and was able to repel a late thrust from What Else But You to win by a neck in a race which has been won by such luminaries as Electronic Unicorn, Beauty Flash and Designs On Rome.
Trainer Lor, who threatens to challenge the dominance of the old guard in just his second season, knows the value of winning on the bigger stages as well as chalking up the routine winners which he’s certainly managed to do thus far.
In the meantime, Lor is hopeful that Simply Brilliant can continue to improve and make his mark at Group level. “We probably have to look at the better races now. He’ll go up in the ratings after today but I’d thought, early in the season, he’d made some improvement and hopefully there’s a little more there. How much, I don’t know but we will see,” Lor said.
The four-year-old, by Frankel, has had just 15 starts in the UK and Hong Kong combined and this win came in a race which most observers assessed as having great depth. Who’s to say he might not eventually graduate to international competition given that the one-two in last year’s Chevalier Cup – Fifty Fifty and Exultant – will compete in this year’s HKIR.
“It was a very good run. He finished off very strongly just with hands and heels. He was three wide and really it was an amazing run for his first of the season and after a year off. We’ll go for the big race (Hong Kong Cup) and we’ll see. Two-week is not ideal but we’ll do our best. Whatever happens, he is going to have a say in what happens for the rest of the season,” Millard said.
Wishful Thinker, the only horse to have beaten nominal Hong Kong Sprint favourite Hot King Prawn, continued his winning run and that of trainer Richard Gibson in today’s Chevalier Construction Handicap (1000m) at Sha Tin.
The lightly raced and highly promising five-year-old, who inflicted Hot King Prawn’s sole defeat back in April, made it back to back wins in impressive fashion – especially given that he was back to the 1000m straight course after swooping late, around the circle, to win over 1200m at Happy Valley on 7 November.
Gibson said that 1200m was ‘probably’ Wishful Thinker’s best distance but that his immediate target was likely to be again at 1000m in the G3 Bauhinia Sprint Trophy.
Credit: HKJC