Champion Sacred Kingdom did what was expected of him in Friday’s opening barrier trial at Sha Tin, with Howard Cheng Yue-tin having an initial feel of the world’s premier sprinter as a prelude to his first race day engagement in the Gome Sprint Cup on May 1.
Sacred Kingdom raced in second place all the way in the 1,200m trial on the all-weather track, with Cheng sitting just off the playmaker Plan B before going up to join that gelding at the 200m.

While both gallopers were travelling on the bridle at that stage, it was Cheng who first went for the added vigour, shaking Sacred Kingdom up and the multiple Group One winner responded quickly, moving away to score by two lengths and was easing himself down in the concluding stages.

The first pair established a 4 1/2 length margin over Spring Sun (Eric Saint-Martin), with Hurricane Dash (Jacky Tong Chi-kit) heading the remainder.

Sacred Kingdom has been ridden this season by Gerald Mosse, who was a victim of circumstances at his last start when second to Good Ba Ba in the Group One Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1,400m) on March 16.

However, that luckless defeat at the hands of the champion miler saw connections react negatively, sacking the French riding ace in favour of Cheng who, despite his strong success levels, is yet to land a race beyond Group Three level.

On Tuesday, another Group One winner showed he is on the way back to form with a strong trial win over 1,050m on the artificial surface.

Able One, who has not been successful since his upset win in the Champions Mile 12 months ago, showed that trainer John Moore may finally be winning the war against his niggling series of injuries.

Manoel Nunes was the rider on Able One, and the Brazilian star always had a lapful of horse. Although he had only a neck to spare over Striking Mascot (Mark du Plessis) in the final stages, he never looked under threat and the win should prove to be a good confidence booster.

Able One’s victory in the Champions Mile was achieved at big odds, with jockey Michael Kinane gambling with the unknown by taking him straight to the front. On other occasions, Able One raced too fiercely but, under the magical hands of Kinane, he relaxed in front before increasing the tempo on the corner and making it impossible for his rivals to run him down.

At his next run, in the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo, Able One drew wide and was left exposed, raced too keenly and dropped out. Unfortunately, the well-bred gelding has been unable to recapture that Champions Mile vein of form since, so his sound effort under trial conditions is at least encouraging. However, on the pure mathematics of it, opening heat winner Windicator Returns was the more impressive victor.

The four-year-old British private purchase, trained by Andy Leung Ting-wah, scored by 1 1/2 lengths from South African Group One winner Fearless and clocked a time that was 1.1 seconds faster than Able One’s 61.2 seconds. His final split was better too, with Windicator Returns clocking 22.7 seconds compared to Able One’s split of 22.8 seconds.

Fearless was handled by Eddie Lai Wai-ming, who seems to be getting additional opportunities from the David Ferraris yard.

The handsome near-black four-year-old is yet to win in nine local starts but did finish third to Helene Mascot in the Group One Mercedes-Benz Classic Mile on January 20.
(Source: SCMP)