RACING lost a superstar last Sunday when Rapper Dragon suffered a fatal injury during the Champions Mile in Sha Tin.

The Australian-bred was odds-on to win the Group 1 contest following his clean sweep of the local four-year-old ‘Triple Crown’ series, including the Hong Kong Derby. Joao Moreira settled the John Size-trained gelding towards the rear of the seven-runner field but the favourite appeared to lose his action at halfway and was quickly pulled up.

It later emerged that Rapper Dragon had fractured his pelvis and, though he was walked into the horse ambulance, he could not be saved by the on-course veterinary team. Head of Veterinary Clinical Services, Dr Christopher Riggs, said: “Rapper Dragon suffered a severe fracture of his pelvis which, unfortunately, was coupled with serious complications. Despite our intensive care in the equine hospital, we were unable to save him.”

The race was won by another Aussie-bred, the seven-year-old Contentment. The 25/1 shot had finished well behind Rapper Dragon on his previous start. Beaten by a neck in second was the Irish-bred Beauty Only, a six-year-old son of Holy Roman Emperor who raced in Italy before being exported to the Far East.

Zac Purton, rider of Beauty Only, lodged an objection to the winner, claiming interference, but there was no change to the result. Winning rider Brett Prebble said: “I was pretty confident. Zac didn’t stop riding.” Contentment could now return to Japan for the Group 1 Yasuda Kinen, a race in which he finished 12th last year.

The two British challengers in last Sunday’s race - Ed Walker’s Stormy Antarctic and Sir Michael Stoute’s Convey - trailed home in fifth and sixth, the last two to cross the line.

Stormy Antarctic ran very keen in first-time blinkers but Walker commented: “I’m sure people will see the blinkers and put two and two together and get five, but I think we’ll be keeping the blinkers on.

“The main problem was he couldn’t get any cover from his draw and he ended up in a fight with his jockey. He burnt up too much energy in the first half of the race and that was it.”

The other Group 1 race on the card, the six-furlong Chairman’s Sprint, was dominated by Australian-breds with Lucky Bubbles (by Sebring) narrowly scoring from Mr Stunning (Exceed And Excel) and Not Listenin’tome (Dylan Thomas).

There was one Irish-bred winner on the Sha Tin undercard. Best Reward, a five-year-old by Holy Roman Emperor, won a 10-furlong handicap. Bred by Brid Cosgrove, Best Reward was originally trained by Sir Michael Stoute and Stuart Williams before being relocated.