Voyage Bubble Completes Sweep of Hong Kong Triple Crown

Voyage Bubble cruised along through a dream trip to win the May 25 Champions & Chater Cup (G1) at Sha Tin Racecourse, completing a challenging three-race sweep that wound up Hong Kong's group 1 season.

The victory, following scores in the Stewards' Cup (G1) and Hong Kong Gold Cup (G1), earned the 6-year-old gelding the Hong Kong Triple Crown for older horses. He became only the second horse, following River Verdon in 1993-94, to survive the challenge of winning those races at 1,600 meters (about a mile), 2,000 meters (about 1 1/4 miles), and 2,400 meters (about 1 1/2 miles) in the same season.

And he made it look easy. With regular rider James McDonald up for trainer Ricky Yiu, Voyage Bubble let others lead the nine-horse field down the riverside backstretch. The pace picked up quickly when jockey Zac Purton urged Ensued to make his move, starting a three-horse scrum.

That strung out the field and opened the way for Voyage Bubble and he smoothly gobbled up ground, made the lead inside the 300-meter marker and won by 3 1/2 lengths from Rubylot. Cap Ferrat finished third. The only foreign entry, Dubai Honor, finished fourth after battling for the lead.

"I couldn't have dreamed of it panning out as well as that. That's once in a blue moon," McDonald said. "The stars aligned and with that sort of run, he was always going to be hard to beat. He was going to be hard to beat even without such a good run, but it all worked out.

"From the 600 meters, he tacked up beautifully, the pace increased, everything was smooth, nothing was cluttered up. I just had a really smooth run the whole way. He's a brilliant horse. He just keeps raising the bar and he keeps on surprising every time I ride him."

Voyage Bubble has five group 1 wins and, with the Champions & Chater winner's share augmented by a HK$10 million (about US$1.28 million) Triple Crown bonus, has earned HK$107.4 million (about US$13.66 million) for his owners, the Sunshine and Moonlight Syndicate.

Yiu has trained several champion sprinters over the years, including Sacred Kingdom  and Fairy King Prawn. But he admitted he was hopeful as much as confident while seeking his first win at 2,400 meters—an uncommon distance in Hong Kong.

"The closer I looked at the race today, the closer I thought he would have a winning chance. He's done so well and his preparation was so good," Yiu said. "He's pure athletic. If you look at him, you can tell he's a high-class racehorse. He's performed up from a sprint to the maximum distance in Hong Kong. He's a genius.

"When we first ran him over 1,200 (meters) and 1,400 (meters), it was like a game for him. The whole team is thrilled."

It was a remarkable day on several fronts for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, including a training landmark, cancellation of a "welcome home" for international star Romantic Warrior , and a computer issue.

John Size, 70, a 12-time Hong Kong champion trainer, became just the second conditioner to reach the 1,600-win mark when Stellar Express won the Indigenous Handicap (G3).

"I've taken my time but finally got there. It's always nice to get some sort of milestone or number up. That's the one today," Size said. "I'm hanging on by the skin of my teeth. We'll just keep trying."

A planned welcome home appearance by Romantic Warrior after his early-season trip to Dubai and Saudi Arabia was scrubbed after routine imaging tests detected "some potential changes in one of the horse's joints," according to a statement from the HKJC.

While Romantic Warrior would not have been at risk in the ceremonial appearance, the Club opted to let him remain in the stables.

The technology hiccup, described as "an intermittent connectivity issue ... with some commingling partners," occurred between the Champions & Chater Cup and the following race. The HKJC recalculated the odds for the ninth race minus commingling, then delayed the start of the two final races on the card "to complete the payout process with accuracy."

Commingling has become an important part of the HKJC's overall turnover in recent years and the Club is a global leader in the technology involved.