Ouija Board confirmed for Vase

Ouija Board has raced only four times so far in 2005 (Joseph DiOrio/Horsephotos.com)

Champion and European Horse of the Year OUIJA BOARD (GB) (Cape Cross [Ire]) will run in next Sunday's

Hong Kong Vase (HK-G1) at Sha Tin, conditioner Ed Dunlop confirmed Sunday.

The

four-year-old,

who was fifth behind Alkaased (Kingmambo) in the November 27 Japan Cup (Jpn-G1) in Tokyo, will

take on the 1 1/2-mile contest rather than the Hong Kong Cup (HK-G1) over 1 1/4 miles.

"Ouija Board had been

75 percent

certain to run in the Vase, but now Alkaased doesn't go, that is the race we'll

go for," Dunlop

said. "Ouija Board lost very little weight as a result of her good run in Japan and has retained

her form well. I think she would have finished closer if she hadn't got a little

bump inside the

final furlong.

"On reflection it is possible she went too soon (in the Japan Cup)," Dunlop

added. "Kieren (Fallon)

felt he kicked on

too early, but I am not complaining with her effort in finishing fifth."

Dunlop

revealed that he

feared the surface would be too firm for the filly in Tokyo.

"I had no idea how

she would

stand up to it after her trouble with a fractured

splint and then a quarter-crack this year, but

she came out of it with no problem," he said. "She is such a good mover. She

will prefer the

ground at Sha Tin, which will be more forgiving. She takes her traveling around

the world so

well, she just eats and sleeps, so she's taking the simple hop from Japan to

Hong Kong in her

stride."