Mike de Kock’s Ertijaal and the Aidan O’Brien-trained Highland Reel, the only two runners in Sunday’s HK$20 million Audemars Piguet QEII Cup to emerge from this year’s Dubai World Cup meeting, pleased their respective handlers when they went through their paces during Monday track work at a rain-soaked Sha Tin.
SA hope Ertijaal goes through his paces on Monday morning – Douglas Whyte will ride him on Tuesday in work
Ertijaal, a strong closing fourth to Real Steel in the Gr1 Dubai Turf (1800m) on World Cup night, had an easy workout on the turf course – running 1200m in 1m 23.4s but looking strong and free in his action as he breezed the last 400m in 25 seconds flat.
Highland Reel, who comes off a solid fourth behind Postponed in the longer G1 Dubai Sheema Classic (2,410m), cantered on the all-weather track and is pleasing assistant trainer Pat Keating who is supervising the horse’s second Hong Kong campaign.
“The horse travelled well. He’s a pretty seasoned traveller now and he’s settled in well. Everything’s gone quite smoothly to the point,” Keating said of Highland Reel who won the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase in December after running third to Winx in the G1 Cox Plate (2,040m) at Moonee Valley last October.
Highland Reel works in the rain on Monday morning
Highland Reel’s past two runs have been at 2,400 metres but the drop back to 2,000 metres on Sunday is no issue according to Keating. “He’s a versatile galloper and the trip’s no problem. He did win the Secretariat (Stakes) at the distance and was good behind what we now know is a very smart filly (Winx) in the Cox Plate. That form has held up,” he said.
Assistant trainer Trevor Brown, looking after Ertijaal, is similarly optimistic about the prospects of the Australian bred four-year-old who represents the UAE, in the colours of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
“The horse has done well and he’s quite adaptable. He looks to have adjusted well to the surroundings here and is working along as we’d hope. The one thing I’d say we do want is a true pace. It looks quite a solid race this year but to be truthful I haven’t gone right through all of the form yet,” said Brown, who was on hand for de Kock when the South African trainer won the AP QEII Cup in 2006 with Irridescence and in 2008 with Archipenko.
Douglas Whyte – rides Ertijaal
“I will sit down and go through the race with Douglas (Whyte). He’ll know more about it than me and we can sort out a plan. At this stage, Dougie will come out and ride him tomorrow morning,” said Brown.
Whyte rode the horse for the first time in Dubai.
Mike de Kock and Brown have been frequent visitors to Hong Kong but this is the first appearance since this time of the season in 2014 when their charge Variety Club scored a stunning four lengths win over Able Friend in the Champions Mile.
And while nobody would expect Ertijaal to win as authoritatively as Variety Club, he follows a proven path as de Kock’s two previous winners also progressed from Dubai.
Archipenko was third in the Dubai Duty Free (now the Dubai Turf), while Irridescence won the Balanchine Stakes.
Highland Reel seeks to follow in the path of the 2001 AP QEII Cup winner Silvano, who ran third in the Sheema Classic before his Hong Kong win. In all, four horses have won the AP QEII Cup since 2001 when it achieved G1 status, after competing in Dubai. The other was Presvis in 2009.
