Packing Winner Takes Final HK Group 1 for Season

Karaka Premier Sale graduate Packing Winner (Zabeel x Musical Note by Marscay) produced a strong finish in the Hong Kong Champions & Chater Cup (2400m) at Sha Tin yesterday to secure the biggest win of his career and the last Group 1 race of the Hong Kong season.

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�Packing Winner defeats Viva Pataca at Sha Tin yesterday. Photo: HKJC

The Peter Ho-trained five-year-old was ridden by his regular rider Douglas Whyte to make it six wins from 16 starts for his owner Lee Wan Keung. The NZ$300,000 Karaka Premier Sale yearling has now collected over HK$9 million in prize money.

His win also signalled the defeat of the Champions & Chater Cup winner of the past two years, Viva Pataca. Currently rated fifth in the world by the International Federation of Horse Racing, Viva Pataca was Hong Kong's Champion Stayer in 2005-06 and is the reigning Champion Middle Distance horse.

The victory was Packing Winner's first trip over 2400 metres with his next big assignment the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase (2400m) next season.

He is yet another outstanding son of Cambridge Stud sire Zabeel who also produced the winner of the prestigious race in 2005, and second place-getter last year, the reigning Hong Kong Horse of the Year, Vengeance of Rain. Zabeel has been crowned the Champion Sire in Australia twice and in New Zealand four times.

The win also provides Marscay with his 21^st Group 1 winner as a broodmare sire, also laying claim to the dams of the likes of Eremein, Catbird, and the brothers Elvstroem and Haradasun.

Fellow Premier Sale graduate Win Practitioner (O'Reilly x Proteaceae by Kaapstad) - a NZ$300,000 purchase from Jo Wilding's Te Mania Thoroughbreds - finished the race in third, six and a quarter lengths from the winner.

Other NZ-bred winners on the card were Home Treasure (Shinko King x The Gifted Shifta by Defensive Play) on debut, and Enthused (Centaine x Free As A Bird by Jugah).