Panfield Seeks Repeat Win in Final G1 of HK Season

Hong Kong's final group 1 event of the season goes to the post May 22 without foreign contenders but with a chance that a good performance by the local champion stayer, Panfield, could launch him onto the international scene.

The Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (G1) is run at 2,400 meters (about 1 1/2 miles). That distance is run only infrequently at Sha Tin Racecourse. Normally, that makes the race an inviting target for overseas raiders.

This year, the Hong Kong Jockey Club opted to keep things local in the face of lingering COVID-19 fears and government regulations. The result is a field of 10, all stabled at Sha Tin and most with little or no experience at the distance.

Panfield wrapped up Hong Kong's champion stayer honors by winning the 2021 Champions & Chater Cup, also run without international entries. He and last season's runner-up, Columbus County, will seek to reverse the result.

If Panfield is to assert again as the best stayer in Hong Kong, he will have to do it while coming around from five consecutive losses this season. Despite that futility, the 5-year-old entire son of Lookin At Lucky   showed some promising signs in his last outing, finishing third in the FWD Champions Cup April 24, and did well in a subsequent barrier trial.

"He had a few runs where he wasn't performing to his best," jockey Karis Teetan said after the trial. "But you could see that he ran well last time and what I'm feeling now is that he is coming back to himself."

With a lack of staying opportunities in Hong Kong, trainer Tony Millard has entered Panfield in the Takarazuka Kinen (G1) at Hanshin Racecourse in Japan June 26.

"I'm not sure what they will be doing," Teetan said. "But there's not many races for horses like him in Hong Kong after this group 1 coming up, so if they have the opportunity to go and if he does do well next start and the owners and Tony believe he should go, then it is totally up to them."

The remainder of the field has lots to prove over the staying trip.

Russian Emperor , a 5-year-old Galileo gelding, won the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (G1) earlier this season—a race in which local superstar Golden Sixty could only manage a third. That event, however, was at 2,000 meters (about 1 1/4 miles) and, perhaps more to the point, was run on yielding turf. 

"He doesn't need it wet but he enjoys it," trainer Douglas Whyte said. "If he gets a sweet run and the ground is good, he'll let down and do what he can. But when the ground has got a bit of give in it, you can put him anywhere and he just starts traveling. You don't have to do anything on him."

Columbus County and Butterfield finished fourth and seventh, respectively, in the Longines Hong Kong Vase (G1) at the same 2,400 meters Dec. 12. In that race, all of the first three finishers came from overseas thanks to the pandemic-prevention "bubble" created by the HKJC in cooperation with government health officials.

The lack of foreign talent and the shaky record of the locals could open the door for a new star. Senor Toba won the Queen Mother Memorial Handicap at 2,400 meters by two lengths over Butterfield while stepping up in class in their last start May 1 and represents the "new blood" in the Champions & Chater ranks and potentially in the future of Hong Kong's stayers.