Virtually unheralded until last month, Fallon has swept into Four-Year-Old Classic Series calculations with a stunning win in the Class 3 Tin Shui Wai Handicap (1600m) at Sha Tin on Saturday (13 January) as Pierre Ng extended a growing domination with a treble.
Third-last as the field turned into the straight, Fallon (117lb) unleashed a now familiar surge to cut down higher-rated opposition in a race restricted solely to four-year-olds – many of whom are being set for the HK$52 million Four-Year-Old Classic Series which features the Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) on 4 February, the Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) on 3 March and the BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) on 24 March.
Cruz immediately confirmed Keith Yeung would retain the ride on Fallon – the first of Galileo Gold’s progeny to run in Hong Kong – after the pair had also combined last month in a 68/1 success, also over 1600m.
“So far, so good. Looks like we’ll stick to the jockey, too, as he knows the horse very well and he has Classic Mile potential for sure,” Cruz said. “I’ll aim for that kind of race. Even though he’s rated so low (65 before today’s win), I’m still going for that race.
“He’ll have one more run before that, but I’ve got to find a race for him. I think this horse is still maturing and doing everything very nice. He’s a very happy horse. He’ll be fitter and better and can go further for sure, maybe all the way to the Derby.”