De Melo breaks HK Group duck in Premier Cup
HONG KONG Keagan de Melo rejoiced in the biggest win of his Hong Kong riding career, when he scored aboard Copartner Prance for trainer Francis Lui in the HK$4.2 million (S$688,000) Group 3 Premier Cup Handicap (1,400m) at Sha Tin on June 22.
Pressing forward from gate 5 in the nine-runner contest, Copartner Prance ($131) defiantly maintained his position at the head of the field as Victor The Winner (Derek Leung) sat in second.
Happy Together (Alexis Badel) made a late lunge, missing by only a head, as Lui's charge savoured success in 1min 21.15sec.
Favourite Packing Hermod (Matthew Poon) battled into third, while Patch Of Theta (Andrea Atzeni) finished fourth, rounding out Lui's 1-3-4 in the race.
De Melo, 31, is a Group 1-winning rider in South Africa and has chalked up 12 wins this season, including his first victory with Copartner Prance at Group 3 level in Hong Kong.
"Francis was pretty simple with the tactics. He said if Victor The Winner doesn't want to go forward, take up the running and ride him for his fractions and I thought the horse pulled it off nicely," he said.
"It's a big relief. Obviously, numbers don't lie. My rides have gone down and my winners have gone down, but I'm a positive person and I just keep my head up and keep fighting.
"Thanks to all the trainers that do support me - I really do appreciate it."
Raced by the Copartner Spirit Syndicate, Copartner Prance is now an eight-time winner in Hong Kong with earnings of HK$14.87 million. The Epaulette five-year-old's previous career peak was six wins in succession last season.
"It's a real honour to be in this position and thanks to Francis and his team, the horse's turned out phenomenally and I think he got the right fractions," said de Melo.
Lui, 66, was crowned Hong Kong's champion trainer last season and is renowned for handling retired superstar Golden Sixty. He starting out as an apprentice jockey in Hong Kong in the early 1970s, and was licensed as a trainer in the 1996/97 season.
"I think the jockey controlled the pace very well. We always thought 1,400 (metres) would suit him, but we tried once before and he was too keen - at the end of the season, he's more relaxed," said Lui.
"I'm very happy to get more and more winners."
Two races later, Beauty Joy ($64) almost certainly staved off retirement after the evergreen eight-year-old upstaged younger rivals to land the HK$4.2 million Group 3 Premier Plate Handicap (1,800m) for Tony Cruz and Brenton Avdulla.
Nearing the end of his fifth Hong Kong season after an unbeaten four-race stint in Australia in 2020 when known as Talladega, the Sebring gelding showed no signs of fatigue when surging past BMW Hong Kong Derby (2,000m) victor Cap Ferrat (Hugh Bowman) and Bundle Award (Atzeni) in 1min 46.91sec.
Second-last early, Beauty Joy trailed the fast-finishing Cap Ferrat into the middle of the track before the pair collared leader Pray For Mir (Matthew Chadwick). Beauty Joy then outsprinted his rivals to claim a seventh Hong Kong win - and his fourth at Group level - to boost his earnings to over HK$35 million.
Cruz, who last won the Premier Plate with Exultant in 2018, revealed Beauty Joy - who is Group 1-placed three times - had almost certainly earned another season after discussions with Simon Kwok, whose wife Eleanor and son Patrick race the chestnut.
"In the parade ring before the race, Simon said 'I hope we win this race. If we win this race, we're going to keep on racing him'," said Cruz. "He won, so it looks like we're going to keep on racing him next season.
"He's a healthy horse and as long as he's healthy, we'll keep going."
On a high after the recent birth of his son Kobe in Sydney, Avdulla said Beauty Joy was a challenging horse to ride.
"We seem to get on very well, I'm the only one to win on him for about probably three years," he said.
"He was good to me last season (winning the Group 2 Chairman's Trophy over 1,600m on April 7, 2024) and we've had another Group race today.
"Obviously well handled by Tony to get him today here in good form and he did his job well.
"He's such a quirky horse. You just can't get any feel of him early. You've just got to try and let the bridle fall out of his mouth as much possible because he can be a very difficult ride.
"I never knew I was really in the race until just before the corner when the pace steadied and he got hold of the bridle. I gave him a little click into gear and he felt like a horse that was going to take me a long way.
"He did a good job. He had to come off the Derby winner's back and get out after him and he did that in good style. So it was nice to get one for a loyal supporter like Tony, and the Kwok family, too."
John Size continued a relentless march towards a record-extending 13th Hong Kong trainers' title with the impressive performance of three-year-old Szeryng ($122) for Karis Teetan in the first section of the Class 4 Diamond Handicap (1,200m).
The master trainer boosted his haul to 64 wins - 10 clear of David Hayes (54) - with seven meetings remaining in the season. HKJC
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