Hong Kong Review: Hayes family salutes with Derby prospect

Cover image courtesy of The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Invincible Ibis heads double for Hellbent

Winning form is the best form, and Invincible Ibis (Hellbent) demonstrated that in fine fashion on Sunday night under a hands and heels ride from Hugh Bowman to win his fourth in succession. “He’s putting up quite a good record now and the nice part about the race was when it got a bit tough and he had to stretch the last part to beat Beauty Bolt, he did. So he’s got good ability, but he’s got good heart,” trainer Mark Newnham told scmp.com.

“You can only keep winning and he’s put four together now, so he goes there in good form.”

He heads to the first leg of the 4-Year-Old Series, the Listed Classic Mile next, with only one question remaining. Who will get the ride? “We can’t confirm now – we’ll know in the next 24 hours. I would think that they’d both (Purton and Bowman) like to ride him, but we’ll find out.”

Newnham regained his position at the top of the Trainer’s Premiership with a double thanks to Invincible Ibis’ stablemate Lucky Sam Gor (NZ) (Press Statement).

Hellbent’s double came with Invincible Ibis after he opened the card with the victory of Snowthorn, trained by Ricky Yiu. Snowthorn was sold by Yarraman Park Stud for $8000 at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale. Bought by Five Palms Racing, Snowthorn went through Sullivan Bloodstock’s Inglis Premier Yearling Sale draft where he was purchased by Ricky Yiu for $110,000. The 4-year-old gelding was notching up his first victory with the win.

Toronado double features Little Paradise

Toronado (Ire) has long been noticed as a big name sire in Hong Kong, and he’s unearthed another exciting prospect with Little Paradise, whose victory puts him firmly on track to go up against Invincible Ibis in the Listed Classic Mile on February 1.

Trainer Jimmy Ting will be hoping that jockey Zac Purton, who was aboard for this win, will stick with him for the Classic Mile. “He’s a very nice horse. After every race, he keeps improving. I’ve always thought the mile would be the horse’s best distance. He has been a bit keen before but now he’s much more calm,” Ting told hkjc.com.

Little Paradise has now won two in succession, and a total of five from eight starts. He was sold by Carramar Park at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale for $270,000 to Dullingham and Legends Bloodstock. His dam, Devil In Her Heart (Star Witness) has a Farnan yearling colt.

Toronado’s other winner for the night was Majestic Valor for trainer Pierre Ng, and he took his record to two wins from three starts. He was sold by Cornerstone Stud at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale for $110,000 to Tartan Meadows Bloodstock.

Sensational five for Purton

Jockey Zac Purton took his lead on the Jockey’s Premiership to 59 wins, ahead of his nearest rival Hugh Bowman who has 26 wins so far in the season, with a massive five race haul. It might have been six, but Bowman’s efforts on Invincible Ibis held out Beauty Bolt (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}).

Purton’s five wins were on Little Paradise, Snowthorn, Majestic Valour, Robot Star (Extreme Choice) for Manfred Man and David Hayes-trained China Win (NZ) (Super Seth). “Robot Star was good, he probably wants further – seven furlongs was a bit sharp for him – and he was good through the line, he was unexposed,” Purton said.

And on the all important decision on who to ride in the Listed Classic Mile, Purton had yet to decide. “It’s a difficult decision to make because they’re all really nice horses, they’ve all got potential, they’re all owned by great owners and they’re all trained by trainers I regularly ride for, so it’s not easy at all,” Purton said.

“They’ve all come to the races and run well again today. The problem I face is I’ll pick one and then there’s five others there to beat me.”

Emotional win for Hayes with China Win

David Hayes arrived back in Hong Kong on Sunday morning after a horror week fighting fires at his Lindsay Park base in Victoria. “We’ve had a really bad time with the fires – I haven’t slept for two and a half days. I got back at 7am this morning after fighting the fires back home,” Hayes told scmp.com.

“I left my property last night when the fire had passed, but we lost 90 per cent of our infrastructure. It was pretty horrific, I was looking after 320 horses with my sons and my wife – we saved all of them bar seven.”

Some relief was found with the emotional victory of China Win, who will be set for the Listed Hong Kong Derby. “Given the form of the horse, I was sure he was ready to win, but when he got that barrier it was a bit of a worry,” said Hayes.

“They went fast and Zac was able to let him relax and he charged home without the blinkers and won like he’s going to keep on winning. We needed to work on his mental attitude and I think he really responded – I was encouraged to see how fast the time was and how easy he won. It’s going to be hard but we’re going to try and qualify him for the Derby – that’s the idea.”

The son of Super Seth runs in the Hayes family ownership, and was purchased by Hayes for NZ$130,000 from Ohukia Lodge’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale draft. He is the last foal of stakes placed Miracle Miss (NZ) (O’Reilly {NZ}) who previously produced Listed winner Maritimo (NZ) (Pins) and Group 3-placed Natural Storm (NZ) (Pins).

Yearling connections

Of the 11 winners on Sunday night, there are three who have half or full siblings for sale in the 2026 yearling season.

Robot Star’s half-brother by Artorius will be presented by Fernrigg Farm as Lot 1058 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Elite Golf (Frosted {USA})’s half-sister by Pierro is Lot 150 at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale. This is the family of Thorn Park.

Stakes placed Rezeki (NZ) (Ardrossan)’s full sister is Lot 21 at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale. Their dam is a half-sister to G2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes winner Aotea Lad (NZ) (Savabeel).