International Races with Mendocino

Sha Tin, Sunday, 11 December: The International Races in Hong Kong again attract numerous fans in front of the screens at an early hour. The first highlight, the Hong Kong Vase (4th race/7.10am/22m HK$/2400m), will be decided with German participation. Sarah Steinberg will saddle Mendocino (Rene Piechulek), who finished twelfth in the `Arc de Triomphe` last time out, for the Salzburg stable and will face a total of nine opponents. Other chances from Europe are, above all, Stone Age (Ryan Moore) and stablemate Broome (Yutaka Take), who ran strongly in the Breeders` Cup and is trained by Aidan O`Brien, Bubble Gift (Christophe-Patrice Lemaire) and Botanik (William Buick). The favourite for the race is last year`s winner Glory Vase (Joao Moreira).

In the Hong Kong Mile (7th race/9.00am/3m HK$/1600m), Golden Sixty (C. Ho), who has run without exception so far at Sha Tin, will try to record the 23rd win of his 26-start career. The seven-year-old won as expected in the Jockey Club Mile (Group 2) dress rehearsal, but had to fight hard against California Spangle (Zac Purton). Waikuku (Silvestre de Sousa) and More Than This (K. Leung) completed the ranking.

The Hong Kong Cup (8th race/9.40am/34m HK$/2000m) also guarantees an exciting outcome. Unbeaten here since March, Romantic Warrior (James McDonald) will try to stay on the winning track, but will not have an easy time of it with Panthalassa (Yutaka Yoshida) and Jack d`Or (Yutaka Take), who have run strongly at Group 1 level recently in Japan. Aidan O`Brien tries to get into the final fight with Order Of Australia (Ryan Moore).