Maurice sets sights on fourth G1 jewel

Maurice

Japan racing fans will not only be looking to Kyoto Racecourse for big action this weekend, but also to Hong Kong, where Maurice, expected to go off the favorite, will take on the Champions Mile, a Grade 1 international event for 3-year-olds and up with a weighty purse of HK$14 million and a first-place prize of HK$798,000 (approximately 110 million yen). The Champions Mile is one of a Grade 1 double-header at Sha Tin and immediately follows the HK$10 Chairman’s Sprint Prize.

Maurice, a 5-year-old son of Screen Hero, wrapped up 2015 with his sixth-straight win, his third-straight G1 and the JRA’s Horse of the Year award. His final race of 2015 was the Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin Racecourse on Dec. 13 and, on May 1, he’ll be looking to repeat that triumphant turn around the oval for the Champions Mile.

If he succeeds in finding the Champions Mile winner circle, he’ll be the first Japan-based horse to do so. Maurice is the fourth Japanese-trained horse to attempt to steal the race from the locals, who have dominated the race since it opened to foreign-based competition in 2005. Only once since has the race been won by any other than a Hong Kong horse. That was in 2014 by South Africa’s Variety Club. All three previous runners from Japan – Meiner Lacrima in 2014, Meiner Segal in 2008, and Cosmo Bulk in 2005 – finished in 10th place.

Last year, after scooping first the Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo, then the Mile Championship at Kyoto, Maurice, in his first overseas bid, captured his third G1 race in a row with victory in the Hong Kong Mile. On what is known in Hong Kong as International Day, Maurice, under Ryan Moore, trounced the field, including local favorite Able Friend, with Joao Moreira up.

Taking care to allow Maurice to recover from his six starts and six wins of 2015, 48-year-old trainer Noriyuki Hori chose to pass on an excursion to Dubai this year. In fact, the Champions Mile will be Maurice’s first start of this year.

Maurice turned in his last fast work at Miho Training Center on April 14 and got a nod of approval from assistant trainer Atsunori Hashimoto. “He is sufficiently up to steam and able to access his power,” Hashimoto said. Maurice touched down in Hong Kong in the wee hours of April 24 and has been training at the Sha Tin venue ever since.

The following day he stretched his legs on the all-weather track. Assistant trainer Toru Munakata said Maruice was settling in well. “This is his second time in Hong Kong and he’s accustomed to the environment here.” On April 26, Maurice had a bit of easy exercise. Munakata said the horse was continuing to look well and there were no changes. The following day Maurice hacked at a leisurely half pace on the turf course.

With Ryan Moore in England for the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and Able Friend sidelined due to injury, the ride on Maurice in the Champions Mile has gone to the Brazilian-born Moreira, Hong Kong’s current leading jockey. The 32-year-old Moreira galloped Maurice for 800 meters on Thursday, April 28 and clocked 54 seconds. Munakata said Maurice was “very relaxed and walking nicely even after the fast work. He is in good condition.”

In an interview with the South China Morning Post last month, Moreira said Maurice’s performance in December at Sha Tin made the decision to accept the offer to ride the horse in the Champions Mile easy. “Obviously, he is a very good horse, but the main thing is that he has proven that he can travel – he did it here when he beat Able Friend,” Moreira said.

“We already know how good he is, but being good and being able to travel are two different things. That was the main factor in the decision, that he has shown he can bring his A-game overseas.”

Moreira was looking forward to riding work with Maurice. "Hopefully, I can ride him a few times at trackwork and get a feel for him and obviously I would like to maintain a relationship with the connections in the future and have the opportunity to ride more Japanese horses.”

Maurice will be running under the No. 1 saddle cloth and breaking from the No. 6 gate in what is expected to be a field of 12, with the Japan flag-bearer the highest rated at 121 points. Maurice tends to settle behind the speed or midfield and has proven to be able to handle all going.

Maurice is being called “very hard to beat” by many for the May 1 race. The only other foreign raiders this year will be two Godolphin runners – the Charlie Appleby-trained Safety Check from the U.K. via Dubai and John O’Shea’s Bow Creek from Australia.

Though 2015 Champions Mile winner Able Friend, trained by John Moore, is out this year, other locals who followed Maurice over the line in the Hong Kong Mile will be out for revenge come Sunday. They include invitees Giant Treasure, who was runner-up in the Hong Kong Mile, the John Size-trained Contentment, fifth in the Hong Kong Mile, and the Tony Cruz-trained Beauty Flame (sixth in the HK Mile) and Beauty Only.

Moore, who just pocketed the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup last week with Werther, has had horses win this race for him six times since 2007 and four years in a row from 2010. Moore brings Hong Kong Mile eighth-place finisher Rewarding Hero to the gate.

Caspar Fownes will field Gun Pit and Dundonnell. Ricky Yiu brings Packing Pins and Blizzard. 

Only three race favorites have won the Champions Mile in its last 15 runnings. The last was Able Friend last year at odds of 1.2-to-1, the shortest priced winner in the race’s history.

Maurice is owned by Kazumi Yoshida. He is out of the Carnegie mare Mejiro Frances and was bred at Togawa Bokujo in Hokkaido’s Hidaka area and purchased for just over 10 million yen at the 2013 Hokkaido Training Sale. Since then, he has tallied eight wins and one third from 13 starts. His JRA races alone have earned him over 313 million yen.

The Champions Mile is the No. 8 race on the Sha Tin card of 11. Post time is 4:10 p.m. local time (5:10 p.m. Japan time). A livecast of the race can be seen on the Hong Kong Jockey Club Web site (http://campaign.hkjc.com/en/2016-champions-mile/livecast.aspx).

Please visit the following websites for more information.

Hong Kong Jockey Club website:
http://www.hkjc.com/english/

Champions Mile website:
http://campaign.hkjc.com/en/2016-champions-mile/index.aspx