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Yee Cheong Baby delivered trainer Jimmy Ting his first Class 2 victory as the hulking chestnut made it look easy in Suffolk Handicap (1200m), powering to a two-length success under Zac Purton, who landed a treble.

“The horse has improved, I think he is top of Class 2, we’ll see next season if he improves a little bit, maybe he can run in a Group race,” said Ting.
 

Yee Cheong Baby made all to clock a slick 1m 08.78s, just shy of Ivictory’s Happy Valley 1200m track record time of 1m 08.52s.

Ting’s taking it easy with Yee Cheong Baby; the youthful chestnut still has plenty of maturing to do according to his handler.

“I didn’t push him because he’s only three years old, I just gave him relaxed work, gallop three times, easy,” the handler said.

“He’s a big horse, still growing; I think next season he’ll be better,” he added.
 

G3 placed in Australia pre-import, Yee Cheong Baby will now look to next season for his third start.

Ting’s duet began with Takingufurther in the Class 4 Dorset Handicap (1200m), who sped clear without headgear to record his first Hong Kong win, also giving Keith Yeung his first win since early April.

“He is a nice horse, the change of gear made him calmer and the jockey (Keith Yeung) rode a good race,” said Ting.

The son of Exceed And Excel wore blinkers the two starts prior, but the nervous gelding was without them tonight as Ting hoped he would relax pre-race.

“The horse is still very nervous, so after this race I think I will let him have a rest till next season,” the handler added.
 

Zac Purton’s dominance continued, the Australian made it eight wins from his last three meetings, taking his season tally to an astonishing 126.

Hong Kong’s champion jockey kicked off his treble with Win Win who took the Class 3 Lancashire Handicap (1650m). He then claimed the second of three wins in the Class 3 Norfolk Handicap (1200m) with the Richard Gibson-trained Loving A Boom.

“He’s had a very good season and it’s frustrating he hasn’t won before tonight, but we held him up a little bit more than previous runs and I thought he dominated the race throughout,” said Gibson. 

Callan shines bright aboard Light 

Neil Callan excelled aboard Acclaimed Light (132lb), delivering a picture perfect ride to claim the night’s feature, the Class 4 St George’s Challenge Cup (1650m) for trainer Paul O’Sullivan.

“The horse deserves it more than anything, he’s so genuine,” said Callan.

A maiden winner in Australia pre-import, Acclaimed Light has totalled three wins from 41 starts in Hong Kong for Paul O’Sullivan.

“He’s been unlucky with his draws recently and he’s always been quite strong and competitive in Class 4 when he’s dropped into Class 4,” the rider said.

Acclaimed Light has drawn barrier 12 twice in his last four starts, the other he jumped from seven and tonight’s (22 May) race saw him break from nine.

“His worst enemy is when he gets a bad draw, he’s so genuine he always runs his race, so when he has a bad draw he runs a place and creeps up the handicap, our worry was that he would just go back up into Class 3 without winning,” he added.

A determined ride from Callan got the seven-year-old into the clear and the gelding responded when asked by the rider to run down David Hall’s Salto Olimpico (133lb) in second.

“It was do or die that he would to push forward and try and get into a spot early and luckily we got a spot, I think that was the difference of him winning and losing,” said Callan.

Fownes and Ho seal double

Caspar Fownes and leading homegrown rider Vincent Ho made it double together and the handler was full of praise for his former apprentice, who moved within two wins of a first half century.

“It’s wonderful, I’m so proud of him he’s had a great season, he’s one of the hardest working jockeys, he really has a go, he tries to spend the summers away from Hong Kong learning and improving his skills which is great and it’s proven this year, he’s done a great job,” said Fownes.

The pair’s double commenced with Jumbo Prize, who returned his first Hong Kong win, taking the Class 4 Dorset Handicap (1200m) and was completed with Fearless Fire (126lb) in the Class 3 Norfolk Handicap (1200m).

“I was just surprised he (Fearless Fire) got that far out of his ground, he couldn’t take advantage of the draw (4) but it didn’t matter, he got the job done, great for Vincent (Ho), great for the owners, it’s been a nice night,” said Fownes.

Joao Moreira claimed the Class 5 Cornwall Handicap (1650m) with the Manfred Man-trained Little Fantasy.

Hong Kong racing continues at Sha Tin on Sunday 26 May, featuring the final G1 race of the season, namely the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m).