The Happy Mission Syndicate will be happy indeed after Excellent Daddy, the horse they purchased from Australia, saluted at Sha Tin on Sunday.
Excellent Daddy raced under the name of Charmacys for trainer Kacy Fogden in Queensland for a brief three race career in Australia before being exported to Hong Kong where he joined the stable of T P Jung.
The very lightly raced chestnut son of Toorak Toff left Australia with only three runs behind his name (he had actually had more trials than races at that time) which produced one win in Maiden company over 1210m.
He arrived in Hong Kong in December 2020 and he was given two runs in the first preparation with a fifth place being his best finish. In just his second run in the new season though he has been good enough to take the honours, with Derek Leung in the saddle, in a Class 3 handicap over 1200m.
Nothing earth-shattering there perhaps, but it is a given that the more the Australian imports win in Hong Kong … in whatever company …the more the already enthusiastic Hong Kong buyers turn to the Australian market with many having the capital behind them to be able offer sums of money too good to refuse and, as a consequence, the Australian racing ranks can suffer accordingly.
On the flip side, it does make you realise something that we might sometimes take for granted, namely how fortunate we are in Australia to retain horses such as Incentivise, amongst others, and to be able enjoy watching the best of the Australian racing products lighting up the Australian racing scene.
