Training Report of Foreign Entry
Japan Autumn International
The 16th Running of the Champions Cup (G1)

December 5, 2015 (Saturday)

<At Chukyo Racecourse>

Weather: Fine
Going: Standard (dirt course)

Gun Pit (AUS, G5, bay)

- jogged 1,500m, cantered 3,500m, walked 1,000m (dirt course)
(exercised from 6:24 to 6:47, ridden by Danny Suen)

“He just did a quiet bit of work this morning—his fitness is pretty good—he only ran less than two and a half weeks ago, and he had a good preparation going into his first race in Hong Kong—four barrier trials—to get him as fit as I could first up.

I had this race in mind for quite some time, probably about six months. I looked at the program and I thought that my horse appeared to be quite smart on the surface (all-weather) in Hong Kong and his rating was obviously going to keep climbing up. So I spoke to my owner and my good friend Eddy Cheng and said “look, I think this horse is a very smart horse and we should think of taking him overseas for the future and it would be a nice starting point in Japan which is not that far away from Hong Kong”.

There a lot of factors still unknown for us because the dirt surface here is totally different—it’s so very heavy out there—but you never know, he’s such an adaptable horse, and we have to try because it’s a starting point. (going left-handed) He’s been comfortable in all his work, my rider Danny has told me he’s been going around good, it’s just a case of whether he can hold a handy position out of the gate—starting from gate 14 is not going to be easy in any way—but we’ll leave it up to Zac and see where we’ll go. We hope that he’ll jump well try to make our own luck and get him into some sort of position to give him the best chance of seeing how he’ll handle the surface.

Obviously, we have utmost respect for the Japanese horses as I do every time I come here, and I believe you have some of the best in the world and a couple of superstars in this race, but as I say, Gun Pit is a very good horse, he’s never lost on the dirt and, while he’s broken the record in his last three starts, he’s only just coming and I’d be happy, even if he doesn’t win, that he’s competitive on this surface, because in six-month time he’ll keep improving.

I most certainly have Dubai in mind for this horse—Hong Kong has proven to be competitive in Dubai and my horse is very good—my only concern is whether he’ll handle the dirt here—so if he can handle the surface he’ll run a very good race. Basically, I’ve come here for just this one race unless of course if he does something incredible, the choice to race another one in Japan is on the table. After this race he’ll relax a bit after he flies back—I think on the 15th (December)—then he goes to Dubai sometime in January in preparation for the World Cup.”

 (comments taken from Caspar Fownes)