Moonlight Cloud, Cirrus des Aigles on course for Hong Kong

A total of 68 international Group 1 winners are among the 241 horses

nominated for the four Hong Kong International Races, worth a total of HK$72

million, which are to be held at Sha Tin Racecourse on December 8.

The outstanding list of nominations features 12 of the top 50 horses from the

latest World's Best Racehorse Rankings, including the outstanding French

racemare Moonlight Cloud. Also among the stellar nominations are the brilliant

British fillies The Fugue and Sky Lantern, crack European miler Olympic Glory,

2012 Breeders' Cup Turf hero Little Mike, Group 1 stalwart Cirrus des Aigles and

Hong Kong champion Military Attack.

The Group 1 extravaganza consists of the HK$22 million Hong Kong Cup at about

1 1/4 miles (95 nominations), the HK$20 million Hong Kong Mile (101

nominations), the HK$15 million Hong Kong Sprint at about six furlongs (61

nominations) and HK$15 million Hong Kong Vase at about 1 1/2 miles (79

nominations). A total of 95 horses have been nominated for two races.

The nominees for this year's edition of the Turf World

Championships represent 19 countries and regions as compared to 13 in 2012.

Hong Kong Mile-bound Moonlight Cloud is one of the best sprinter/milers of

recent times in Europe and has notched six wins in Group 1 company up to a mile.

Most recently, the Freddie Head-trained five-year-old slammed a top-class field

with a blistering last-to-first burst to capture the Prix de la Foret at

Longchamp.

"Moonlight Cloud is very well and we intend to run her in the Hong Kong

Mile," said Head, whose outstanding mare is unbeaten in four starts this year.

"She seems to be getting better with every run, and although the race is late in

the year, she is very fresh and I am very happy that she is as well as she was

during the summer.

"For the moment she is in half work, but in two weeks she will start her

preparation and then we will probably ship her to Hong Kong a week before the

race. I think the race is good for her."

Hong Kong hero California Memory has made the Hong Kong Cup his own for the

past two years. Tony Cruz's stable star leads a strong home team that includes

Hong Kong Horse of the Year Military Attack, winner of this year's QEII Cup at

the course and distance and the Singapore Airlines International Cup.

Also nominated for the Hong Kong Cup (as well as the Vase) are the top

English filly The Fugue and crack French gelding Cirrus des Aigles. The latter

was runner-up for the second year running in the Champion Stakes at Ascot

recently, a race which he won in 2011. Corine Barande-Barbe's seven-year-old has

competed at three of the last four Hong Kong International Races and was only

withdrawn on the eve of last year's event due to a setback.

"Cirrus des Aigles has come out of Ascot very well and is likely to go for

the Hong Kong Cup," Barande-Barbe said.

"He was very well after the race at Ascot and when he went to the vets he was

bucking and singing. As usual, he has been getting better and better from race

to race this season and I think the real Cirrus des Aigles is back.

"He has been a bit unlucky when he has gone to Hong Kong in the past. The

first time in the Hong Kong Vase, he was not mature enough, but still ran a good

race to finish fifth. He was caught wide with Stacelita in the Cup and then the

next year he got boxed in, but wasn't beaten far on both occasions. Hopefully,

we will get better luck this year and we are going there to get some revenge."

Sky Lantern, the winner of Britain's One Thousand Guineas for trainer Richard

Hannon, has caught the imagination of racing fans this season with three wins at

the highest level, and has been nominated for both the Cup and the Mile.

Meanwhile, Japan's Lord Kanaloa is in line to defend his title in the Hong

Kong Sprint. He won the Yasuda Kinen at a mile in June and won the Sprinters

Stakes back at about six furlongs last time. Trainer Takayuki Yasuda has also

nominated him to the Hong Kong Mile but is leaning toward the Sprint, in which

he could meet Hong Kong's 2011 winner Lucky Nine, England's Nunthorpe Stakes

heroine Jwala, and the Irish pair of Sole Power and Slade Power. Lucky Nine,

runner-up recently in the Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley in Australia, is the

equal top-rated active sprinter in the world according to the World's Best

Racehorse Rankings.

Red Cadeaux is slated to return to the scene of his greatest triumph in last

year's Hong Kong Vase and could once again lock horns with Dunaden, who won the

2011 Vase for France after victory in the same year's Melbourne Cup. The test is

also on the radar for British Champions Fillies & Mares winner Seal Of Approval

and Irish St Leger heroine Voleuse De Coeurs.

William A. Nader, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Executive Director of Racing,

was delighted with the high caliber of the nominations.

"The Longines Hong Kong International Races is not only Hong Kong's premier

sports event but also one of world horse racing's greatest occasions, and a

glance down the list of excellent nominations for this year's event gives a

clear indication of that," Nader said.

"We are pleased to have 12 horses from the world's top 50 together with the

raft of Group 1 winners that have been nominated. The likes of Moonlight Cloud,

Lord Kanaloa, Cirrus des Aigles, and of course Hong Kong's very own heroes Lucky

Nine, California Memory and Military Attack, are big name draws on any day.

Their planned participation vindicates our assertion that the Longines Hong Kong

International Races at Sha Tin in December really is The Turf World

Championships."

A host of other international stars are among the nominations including

Ireland's Group 1 winners Declaration of War and Gordon Lord Byron -- fourth in

last year's Hong Kong Mile and since winner of the Sprint Cup at Haydock Park --

and fellow Mile nominees Flotilla, Havana Gold and Maxios.

For full lists of nominations for all four races, please click this

link.

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