The final international Group 1 race of Hong Kong’s season, the HK$12 million Champions Mile, brings together a field of nine star milers at Sha Tin Racecourse on Sunday, 5 May, with overseas raiders KING MUFHASA and PENITENT facing a stiff home defence that includes last year’s winner and runner-up, XTENSION and GLORIOUS DAYS. (Image sahorseracing.com) 

GLORIOUS DAYS arrived at last season’s Champions Mile as the new rising force in the mile division and sealed his place at the top table with that fine second. Twelve months on, the talented John Size-trained gelding has added a couple of victories over AMBITIOUS DRAGON to his curriculum vitae and now heads into the international showcase as the horse all others are aiming at, including the latest new kid on the block, PACKING WHIZ.

Size views the Caspar Fownes trainee as perhaps the biggest threat to GLORIOUS DAYS’ attempt to claim a first international G1 victory.

“PACKING WHIZ is an improving horse who looks like he’s moulding and developing into one of the good horses. He’s got a quick finish on him so I think he’ll be hard to beat,” said the champion trainer.

GLORIOUS DAYS’ two spotlight achievements so far this season came in the G2 Jockey Club Mile and HKG1 Stewards’ Cup at the course and distance. The five-year-old goes into Sunday’s contest off the back of a third-place behind AMBITIOUS DRAGON in the HKG1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup over 1400m on 17 March, and warmed up for his impending task with a barrier trial “win” over 1200m on the all-weather last week.

“I’m reasonably happy with him,” said Size. “He’s come back from his last start and trialled quite normally and I think he might improve a little bit after that. He’s a good horse fresh, he doesn’t appreciate a lot of training and this racing season he’s just had five runs going into Sunday.”

PACKING WHIZ began this campaign with two victories that flagged the horse as one likely to fulfill his undoubted potential, but a midseason slump of three straight defeats dampened hopes of a G1 coronation. That was until last month’s HKG2 Chairman’s Trophy, when having his first start for Fownes, the five-year-old unleashed a breathtaking burst of speed to surge from the rear and win the mile contest impressively.

That electric change of pace has jockey Brett Prebble in buoyant mood leading into Sunday’s race, although in the back of the Melbourne Cup-winning rider’s mind is the fact that the horse has twice this season been found with blood in his trachea after being beaten in races.

“He’s a horse on the way up, he’s got it all before him still but he’s no doubt one of the most exciting horses you could ride,” said Prebble of the 2011 G3 Italian 2,000 Guineas winner. “He’s got this amazing turn-of-foot, which as soon as you ask him, he puts the race away in 50 metres when he’s right. Obviously he has some issues but Caspar seems to have him in good health and if he can bring that form to the Champions Mile I have no doubt he’s the best horse in the race. We just need to get him there on the day a healthy horse and he’ll do the rest.

“His greatest asset is that these other horses don’t have the turn-of-foot this horse has. I actually hope they can go slow – he can still out-sprint them off a slow speed. If they go faster they drag him out a bit and he’s probably not as electrifying as he can show. The other day, when they went that slow, you’d think he couldn’t come from last and still win but he’s got an explosive turn-of-foot when you ask him - it’s exciting.”

Should Prebble prevail atop PACKING WHIZ, he would become the most successful Champions Mile jockey with three wins, following scores on BULLISH LUCK (2006) and SIGHT WINNER (2009). The last-named gave Size a second victory in the race after ELECTRONIC UNICORN in 2003.