Mr Stunning and Exultant trialled at Sha Tin yesterday morning (Tuesday, 22 October) and both appeared to be in fine order as they go towards December's LONGINES Hong Kong International Races as defending champions.
Neither horse has stepped into the race-day fray yet this term: Exultant is slated for a first-up run in the Group 3 Sa Sa Ladies' Purse (1800m) on 3 November, while Mr Stunning is likely to return in the Group 2 Jockey Club Sprint (1200m) two weeks later.
Heading in off a six-month spell due to an off-fore stress fracture, Mr Stunning had his first trial of the season in today's final batch of four. The classy bay cruised around to finish a neck to the fore with jockey Keith Yeung holding onto two handfuls of tight reins.
“He feels really good,” Yeung said of trainer Frankie Lor's star who clocked 1m 00.14s for the 1050m dirt track hit-out.
“He's coming back from a long time off and he jumped perfectly, showed good gate speed and travelled lovely just next to the leader. Frankie told me it was his first trial so not to give him too much hard work. I just took him back a little bit in the straight and he was really good.”
Yeung will not be in the plate when Mr Stunning goes to the races. Hugh Bowman is expected to partner the Lor galloper.
Zac Purton rode the gelding to third in the Group 2 Sprint Cup in April and was the intended rider for an aborted tilt at the Group 1 Chairman's Sprint Prize later that month. He will be in opposition should Mr Stunning step out in next month's Group 2 and quite possibly again when the worthy star attempts to make history as the first three-time winner of the December sprint feature.
“It's tough because he's such a good horse but I made that call,” the champion jockey said.
“I'm riding Regency Legend in that race. It was difficult, you've just got to make a decision and I hadn't been on Mr Stunning's back so I couldn't get a feel of how he was going. He's older now, he hasn't had just one setback, he's a had a couple of setbacks in the last couple of seasons and you just start to wonder, when little things keep going wrong, how much longer you're going to have them for.”
Purton is not yet ready to confirm which horse he will ride in the big one itself with the John Moore-trained rising star Aethero another that could benefit from his skills in the December feature.
“I'll see how the horses stack up,” he said. “We all want to see how Aethero goes – he gets in with a really light weight so let's see how he handles the pressure against the big horses back around a corner. I'll see how my bloke goes and then we'll make a decision.”