Ricky Yiu is confident Voyage Bubble can continue to raise the bar when his leading four-year-old lines up in Sunday week's $12 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) at Sha Tin – the second leg of the 2023 Four-Year-Old Classic Series.
Having led and won the HK$12 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) at the end of January, Voyage Bubble will once again be paired with Jamie Kah as he looks to continue a dazzling advance – one that Yiu believes is far from over.
“He'll be very competitive if he does what he did last time. He's still improving, his rating is currently below 100 but eventually he should get over that, this is my goal with the horse,” Yiu said.
Voyage Bubble – by Deep Field – has already shot-up 41 points to a career-high rating of 93, thanks in part to his go-forward, catch me if you can style of racing which proved successful last start under a measured Jamie Kah in the first leg of the three-race age-restricted series.
The Australian-bred tuned-up impressively at Sha Tin's barrier trial session this morning (Friday, February 17) under Dylan Mo, clocking 1:09.28s out in front by a spacing three lengths to fellow four-year-old Sword Point, while Waikuku and Money Catcher finished down the field.
“He's still a fraction slow when he jumps. Dylan was saying that he was loaded quite early, so he stood there for a while but after 100 or 200 metres, when he started going he really stretched out – he won't stop, especially in the straight, he'll just keep extending,” Yiu said.
Kah racked and stacked the field last start, scoring by one and a quarter lengths over Tuchel and Packing Treadmill, while the majority of the field failed to make up any ground whatsoever.
“It was a nice and easy trial but he had a nice blow, we'll keep him fresh after this trial. Dylan said the horse is very fit, he's well and he was amazed – he couldn't stop him, he kept going,” Yiu said.
Yiu has also engaged Kah to ride several of his other runners on Sunday week's undercard.
“She'll ride Good News who finished a good third last time, there's a few more also,” he said.