Macau is on the cards for Packing Dragon (120lb) after the game front-runner held off a swarm of challengers to win the Class 2 Wong Nai Chung Handicap (1800m) at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.
The brave grey nicked his fifth win at the course and distance by a diminishing nose from Prawn Baba (125lb), the horse that stalked closest throughout. Rickfield (114lb), Happilababy (107lb) and Victory Boys (114lb) pressed late, two short-heads and a neck apart, as the first five in the field of eight flashed past the post within a half-length of each other.
Winning rider Matthew Poon betrayed no hesitation when asked if he thought that the 11/1 shot had prevailed.
“No!” he said. “I’ve been unlucky recently, so I didn’t think I’d got it – I was quite happy when my number came up, that’s for certain.”
Matthew Poon drives Packing Dragon (far-side) to a narrow win, picture Hong King Jockey Club
Packing Dragon took the HK$1.86 million contest in a time of 1m 51.68s, more than two and a half seconds outside of standard. That moderate pace proved to be crucial for last season’s Hong Kong Airlines Million Challenge winner.
“It was a typical small-field tempo – not strong – we had control of the race,” Poon said. “If we ran the race again it might be a different story but the tempo really suited.
“Prawn Baba travelled pretty keenly and wanted to go in front of me, but the tempo meant that he stayed where he was – if he’d been able to come across me we might not have won.
“Packing Dragon is really honest though,” the seven-pound apprentice continued. “He kept trying, he has a big heart and when the pressure came he kept finding. I feel that he hit the line pretty strongly – he was fighting the last 400 (metres), right the way through.”
A half-brother to Hong Kong great Ambitious Dragon, trainer Ricky Yiu’s charge has carved a lucrative niche as a smart front-runner around Happy Valley’s tight contours – tonight’s success was the six-year-old’s seventh at the venue. Yiu is keen to venture further afield though, across the Pearl River delta at least, with an entry made earlier this week for the Macau Hong Kong Trophy at Taipa on 4 March.
“I want to go to Macau with him, it might be a bit short – the 1500 metres isn’t ideal – but he’s tough and honest so I’d like to go there. Chad (Schofield) rode him last year when he won the Million Challenge so he’ll ride him there,” the handler confirmed.
