Rapper Dragon heads towards the BMW Hong Kong Derby with a lofty rating and a reputation to protect, and trainer John Moore remains confident that his star four-year-old will live up to expectations in the HK$18 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) a week Sunday (19 March).
That conviction was not troubled this morning, Tuesday, 7 March, when the talented Street Boss gelding was among a clutch of Derby entrants engaged in barrier trial action. Never one to set the turf alight during such assignments, the chestnut travelled well enough under Joao Moreira to finish an easy two and a quarter lengths seventh of 10 in batch one; his time for the 1000m stretch out was 59.13s.
“Rapper Dragon has never been a flashy trialler and again he just did what he had to do. That was what we wanted and what we expected. There’s still more to come, he’ll work at the weekend and he’ll have a gallop on the turf next Thursday,” Moore said of the 114-rated performer.
Rapper Dragon will attempt to make history as the first horse to win all three races in Hong Kong’s Four-Year-Old Classic Series.
Stablemate and rival Beauty Generation, third and then nowhere behind Rapper Dragon in the series’ first two legs, the Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) and Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m), this morning gave connections hope that he can be a contender in the upcoming blue riband. The Road To Rock gelding traversed the turf with verve as he finished a half-length fourth in the same batch, in a time of 58.87s.
“It’s good to see him go out and trial like that today, obviously the way he ran last time was concerning,” jockey Zac Purton said. “But he was a little bit better today the way he picked up in the last 100 metres and ran through the line nicely. He seemed to pull-up well, so the dream is still there.”
Moore anticipates further improvement as he tunes the bay for the upcoming 2000m test and indicated that, this time, his charge will not press forward and race as close to the pace as he did in the Classic Cup.
“Beauty Generation needed that, he had a good blow,” the trainer said. “The way the connections wanted the horse ridden last time was the undoing of him. We’ll look carefully at race tactics for the Derby, but I’d just forget that last run. His trial today was very good and I’m happy.”
