Silvestre de Sousa is looking to hit the ground running when he returns to action at Sha Tin this Sunday (11 September) as he puts an end to a hiatus spanning nearly 1,000 days since he last competed in Hong Kong.
“I hope so (to getting a fast start), I’ll be busy with eight rides on the day and I don’t think they are certainties but they have the chance to finish on the board and with a bit of luck we could win,” De Sousa said.
De Sousa, 41, boasts 91 Hong Kong wins including a 2018 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) success aboard Glorious Forever which came only a few days after prevailing in the 2018 LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship. He ended that fruitful 298-ride stint with 44 wins and HK$70.085 million in stakes through the 2018/19 season.
“I’m excited to be back in Hong Kong, I’m looking forward to it and I hope to have a good future and season ahead. It’s different every year, obviously you have the top boys here and I hope I can challenge them at some point in races. Overall – (I’m) all good, good health, the horses are looking good in the mornings and I just hope they turn up in the afternoon,” De Sousa said.
Gearing up for the season-opening fixture, De Sousa’s eight rides on the 10-race programme include the prized mount on Lucky Sweynesse (115lb) in the Class 1 HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup Handicap (1200m) following Sky Field’s (135lb) inclusion which spread the allotted weights and ruled out the possibility of Zac Purton being engaged.
“Absolutely, I was lucky to get the ride off Zac (Purton), top weight (Sky Field) came in and he (Lucky Sweynesse) came to be the bottom weight. I think it’s a big plus and a big advantage and when you manage to do the low weight from the bottom to the top (of the handicap) because you have more chances to ride more horses,” De Sousa said.
Lucky Sweynesse was crowned Champion Griffin last season and has built an imposing record for trainer Manfred Man with five wins from seven starts. His current rating is 98 after surging 46 points north of his initial mark (52) following his debut.
“It’s the best race on the card and he’s the talking horse, you know, I’m sure he’ll run well and I don’t know if he is going to win because there are other horses there with a light weight as well coming up in rating, they’ve been improving from last season but I’m looking forward to the ride,” De Sousa said.