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Road to the Derby: Elite four-year-olds chasing “Once-In-A-Lifetime Glory”

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16/03/2026 16:46

Little Paradise lands the Hong Kong Classic Mile in style under Vincent Ho.

In the 13th instalment of The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Road to the Derby series, we dial in on the make-up of the field for the city’s most prestigious race and look at how the 14 runners have come to stand on the edge of glory.

Barring any mishaps, the field for the 149th HK$26 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) at Sha Tin this Sunday (22 March) is set, with all the biggest names from this season’s four-year-old crop featuring.

HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) victor Little Paradise, HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) conqueror Stormy Grove, recent G3 Centenary Vase Handicap (1800m) winner Numbers and G1 Derby Paulista (2400m) hero Sagacious Life headline a field that also features Invincible Ibis, Patch Of Cosmo, Beauty Bolt, Emblazon, Top Dragon, Regal Gem, Juneau Pride, Dazzling Fit, Seraph Gabriel and Pope Cody.

Little Paradise takes the Hong Kong Classic Mile at Sha Tin.

Hong Kong owners search far and wide for the horse they hope will deliver them the ultimate success and this year’s field is a true testament to that, with gallopers bred in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Great Britain and Ireland all featuring.

In the past decade, Private Purchases (previously raced gallopers) have edged unraced runners (Private Purchase Griffins and International Sale Griffins) six Derby victories to four, with success coming in streaks.

After PPs Werther (2016), Rapper Dragon (2017), Ping Hai Star (2018) and Furore (2019) prevailed, PPGs Golden Sixty (2020), Sky Darci (2021) and Voyage Bubble (2023) plus ISG Romantic Warrior (2022) came to the fore before Massive Sovereign in 2024 and Cap Ferrat last year again flew the flag for high-profile imports.

Stormy Grove salutes in the Hong Kong Classic Cup under Harry Bentley.

It is an even split this year with seven PPs and seven PPGs, with Numbers, Stormy Grove and Sagacious Life leading the charge for the previously raced brigade and Little Paradise and Invincible Ibis the top PPGs in the field.

Pope Cody has taken the longest road to this year’s Derby, racing five times for three wins in Queensland, Australia, before winning once from 15 Hong Kong starts to scrape into the field as the lowest-rated runner on a mark of 76.

Numbers raced the most times overseas before being bought by Hong Kong interests, winning twice from 12 starts in Australia, while Sagacious Life experienced the most success abroad before moving to Hong Kong, winning four times from six starts and also posting two G1 seconds.

Stormy Grove wins the Hong Kong Classic Cup, the second leg of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series.

Beauty Bolt had the fewest pre-import starts, winning his only start in Ireland, while Seraph Gabriel is the only PP not to have saluted since landing in Hong Kong.

Among the PPGs, Little Paradise – who boasts the highest rating in the Derby on a mark of 103 – has the most wins with six, while Emblazon has reeled off five victories from just eight starts – the fewest runs of any PPG in the Derby and equal with Seraph Gabriel as the least of any runner.

Seraph Gabriel, Regal Gem, Juneau Pride and Emblazon enter the Four-Year-Old Classic Series for the time first time in the Derby, while Little Paradise, Invincible Ibis, Patch Of Cosmo, Sagacious Life and Beauty Bolt stepped out in both of the first two legs.

As far as form goes, only two runners enter the Derby off the back of victories, with Emblazon on a heater and in search of a fifth-straight victory and Stormy Grove riding high on the back of consecutive successes capped by Hong Kong Classic Cup glory.

Finally, one of the biggest talking points of each year’s Derby is the ability to stay the 2000m trip.

Only three horses have already run over 2000m – Numbers, Sagacious Life and Seraph Gabriel – and while Sagacious Life is a G1 winner over 2400m, Numbers is the only galloper in the Derby field to actually salute over 10 furlongs.

The Contenders

Name	Rating	Trainer	Owner	Record	Country of Origin	Import Type
Little Paradise	103	Jimmy Ting	Ko Kam Piu	6-1-1-10	Australia	PPG
Numbers	100	Frankie Lor	23/24 Frankie Lor Fu Chuen Trainer Syndicate	2-0-1-4	New Zealand	PP
Stormy Grove	98	Frankie Lor	Lily Chan Li Lei & Marc Chan	2-0-1-7	Australia	PP
Sagacious Life	97	Pierre Ng	Leslie Lui Chi Yuen	2-0-0-5	Brazil	PP
Invincible Ibis	94	Mark Newnham	Ibis Syndicate	4-3-1-9	Australia	PPG
Patch Of Cosmo	89	Manfred Man	Simon Yeung Chun Kin	5-0-1-14	New Zealand	PPG
Beauty Bolt	88	Tony Cruz	Eleanor Kwok Law Kwai Chun & Patrick Kwok Ho Chuen	2-3-2-9	Ireland	PP
Emblazon	88	Cody Mo	Military King’s Syndicate	5-1-0-8	Australia	PPG
Top Dragon	87	Chris So	Vincent To Wai Keung, Kenneth To Kin Ting & Ronald To Yiu Ting	3-4-2-13	Australia	PPG
Regal Gem	85	Frankie Lor	Everest Syndicate	3-2-1-12	Great Britain	PP
Juneau Pride	81	John Size	June Wong Wai Man	3-6-3-15	Australia	PPG
Dazzling Fit	80	David Eustace	David Ho & Liann Ho	3-1-2-11	New Zealand	PPG
Seraph Gabriel	79	David Eustace	Marc Chan & Lily Chan Li Lei	0-1-0-3	Ireland	PP
Pope Cody	76	Me Tsui	Cheng Chak Yin	1-1-1-15	Australia	PP