Career milestone for Whyte with Bountiful
Report: Hong Kong, Sunday
Sha Tin: Chairman's Trophy (Group 2) 1m
MORE BOUNTIFUL was a convincing winner of the Chairman's Trophy, providing eight-time Hong Kong champion Douglas Whyte with his 1,100th winner in Hong Kong.
The John Size-trained winner was having his tenth start of his maiden season and scoring for the sixth time - just one win short of the record for wins in a Hong Kong season since the beginning of professional racing there 36 years ago.
Top-weight Viva Pataca ran a solid third to aid his preparation for the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup on April 26. The Champions Mile on the same day may now be the next target for More Bountiful.
Sent off a 10-1 shot, More Bountiful was restrained to tenth place behind a fast early pace.
Once a gap came out between Armada and Express Win, More Bountiful accelerated strongly to pass Viva Pataca and then hung on to withstand the late challenge of favourite Fellowship to score by a length and a quarter. Viva Pataca was another three-quarters of a length back in third.
"It just can't get any better than to celebrate a winner like this with a Group victory," said Whyte.
"This horse has performed consistently all through the season and hopefully there is some more from him in the near future."
Trainer John Size added: "It's not an easy thing to beat those horses with a lot higher rating in a level weight race.
"He bounced back very well after the Derby two weeks ago," he added.
"The mile race really suited him fine, and Douglas really rode him perfectly. He's going to the Champions Mile."
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