Richard Gibson appears to be in a very relaxed mood, sitting and talking in the Sha Tin Stand’s on an unseasonably chilly Tuesday morning (6 December). The trainer’s conversation is light-hearted and stretches beyond racing but when it moves to the subject of Wellington one thing becomes explicit.
The 53-year-old Englishman believes there is one place where the six-year-old champion sprinter deserves to be standing on Sunday, and that is in the winners’ enclosure following the HK$24 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m). Not just deserves to be – but will be according to a man who cannot camouflage his optimism.
And Gibson has history with Hong Kong racing’s big day, recalling: “It was the proudest moment of my career when Akeed Mofeed won the (LONGINES Hong Kong) Cup (G1, 2000m) in 2013. To win Hong Kong’s biggest race is just something that can’t be forgotten.”
Doctor Dino had ensured that the trainer’s LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) history went back even further. Then based in Chantilly, Gibson twice sent the stayer in the direction of the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m), winning both times. First in 2007 and then in a thriller the following year when – in a daredevil ride – Olivier Peslier delivered him from last place to pinch the prize bang on the wire. Doctor Dino also won the prestigious G1 Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont Park and Gibson’s reputation as a trainer who could travel horses and then defeat domestic opposition was by now secured.
Those successes and that international perspective resulted in the Hong Kong licence where he is now in his 12th season, of a 26-year career as a thoroughbred racing trainer.
His winners at Sha Tin and Happy Valley now number 279, but it is the big ones that Gibson believes are the key motivators: “It may be obvious to say but the G1s wins are the best part of the job. They need the most planning and provide the most challenging mental journey.
“Working with these elite athletes and then winning on the big day provides immense satisfaction for me and my team.” And plenty of that satisfaction has materialised from Wellington’s three G1 winning strikes at Sha Tin.
One G1 that provided the opposite of satisfaction was the 2021 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint. A year on, and Gibson winces as he recollects: “I never felt so sick after a race meeting. I can’t and will never watch a replay of that race.”
Wellington, though badly hampered in the confusion, kept on his feet to finish seventh behind Sky Field, one of this Sunday’s opposition.
The stable also fields the talented four-year-old Cordyceps Six in Sunday’s 1200m championship, but the brilliant speedster Wellington is, needless to say, grabbing the attention. “He is the best sprinter in Hong Kong and competing on favourable weight terms with others, plus I don’t believe that the sprinters from Japan are a big threat. Wellington is back at the top of his game and I don’t mind what gate he gets.”
If that barrage of upbeat confidence counts then Wellington and jockey Ryan Moore won’t be far away from delivering more HKIR glory for Richard Gibson and his Sha Tin team on Sunday afternoon (11 December).
