IT would look to be a straight fight between Golden Sixty and Exultant for the most coveted title in Hong Kong racing, the accolade of Horse of the Year. The Ballygallon Stud-bred Exultant must have a great chance of landing it as he won his 13th race, bringing his earnings to almost €8.3 million, with success on Sunday in the Group 1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup, his second victory in the contest.

He has now won five of his 10 starts at Group 1 level, never finishing worse than third. This was the final Group 1 of the Hong Kong 2019/20 racing season. Three years on from chasing home Thunder Snow and Churchill in the Irish 2000 Guineas (then named Irish Correspondent) when trained by Michael Halford, the son of Teofilo (Galileo) has been a model of consistency, finishing out of the first three on just five of his 29 runs, and never running worse than fifth.

Prior to Sunday his trainer Tony Cruz was confident. “He’s a real turf galloper, he loves the mile and a half,” Cruz said. “The first year he ran in it, he was only a four-year-old but last year you could see he was stronger, more mature, and he was easily the best horse. He’s in good form again this season, he’s the champion stayer, so I can see him winning it again.” How right he was and it cemented the trainer’s love affair with the race which has seen him train a remarkable seven of the last eight winners.

Exultant is the fourth foal and winner for his dam Contrary (Mark Of Esteem) who won at two in France. With that victory safely under her belt, her owner Belinda Strudwick wasted no time and Contrary was covered as a three-year-old, resulting in the six-time winner Nonno Giulio (Halling).

He was followed by Duchesse (Duke Of Marmalade), a winner in France, while Contrary’s third foal was another winning daughter, Chilli Spice (Manduro). After a break of a few years from having a foal, on the ground is a yearling filly by Churchill (Galileo), Exultant’s conqueror in the Irish 2000 Guineas. Contrary is out of the unraced Crystal Gaze (Rainbow Quest) and she sold at the inaugural Goffs London Sale in 2014 for £1,150,000 (or about €1.4 million). She is the dam of Spirit Quartz (Invincible Spirit), a Group 2 winner who was beaten a nose in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes. Another son of the mare, Caspian Prince (Dylan Thomas), won 19 races, including the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes at the Curragh.

The other feature was the Group 3 sprint, the Sha Tin Vase, and this was a breakthrough group success for Thanks Forever who has previously been placed a few times at Group 1 level, on his most recent outing prior to the weekend finishing third in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize. Thanks Forever is one of seven stakes winners for Duporth, and that group is headed by the triple Group 1 winner Hey Doc.

Champion

For a stallion standing in Australia, Duporth offers breeders a chance to use a Group 1 winner whose pedigree is free of Danehill blood. The son of Red Ransom (Roberto) is a half-brother to the Group 1 winning two-year-old Excites (Danewin) and to the dam of the South African champion juvenile Delago Deluxe (Encosta De Lago). In his 18-race career Duporth only ever ran in stakes races, winning the six-furlong Group 1 BTC Cup and the Group 2 Golden Rose Stakes – a year before it was elevated to Group 1 status – both at the age of three.

Thanks Forever is the best runner for Cinecitta (Exceed And Excel), a minor winner who also placed in the Listed Red Roses Stakes. She is a half-sister to the listed winning juvenile Misstrum (Stratum) and they, in turn, are out of the stakes-winning two-year-old and Group 2-placed Malagra Miss (Barathea).