Ho Ho Khan (122lb) advertised his potential for top-grade races next season with a fine victory in the G3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup Handicap (2400m) at Sha Tin this afternoon, Sunday 5 May.
Trainer David Hall suggested his charge would not press on to the G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m) at the end of this month, with the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races in December a probable long-range target for the improving four-year-old.
“I didn’t discuss (the Champions & Chater Cup) with the owners but my intention would be to put him away now and hopefully he can mature a bit more and we might have a horse for December,” the handler said of the BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) fifth.
“There’s still a lot of water to go under the bridge before that happens and we’ll see with his prep runs in October how he’s going and make a decision on what his future is. But he certainly looks like he’s good enough to be there and warrant a solid prep for December.”
Hall won the Queen Mother Memorial Cup previously with Bubble Chic in 2014 and this latest success was his first Group race win since Bundle Of Joy took the same year’s G3 National Day Cup.
Jockey Vincent Ho was aboard Bundle Of Joy that day four and half years ago and had Ho Ho Khan mid-pack on the rail in today’s nine-runner feature. The rider switched out at the top of the straight and wound up his mount to accelerate past front-runner Helene Leadingstar (121lb) 250m out. The New Zealand-bred colt stretched two and a half lengths clear of runner-up Savvy Six (113lb) on his first attempt at the distance.