A tenacious all-the-way win from Buddies in the Class 1 Panasonic Cup Handicap at Sha Tin on Saturday had trainer Tony Cruz considering next month’s Gr1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile as the gelding’s next step.
“Looks like I have to, we might as well give it a go – what’s there to lose? – otherwise there’s no race for us,” Cruz said, regarding the son of So You Think’s possible participation in December’s HK$25 million contest.
Buddies goes all the way under Matthew Chadwick (Pic – HKJC)
Buddies’ victory was the tough on-pacer’s seventh win of his career and his second at Class 1 level, and this time he succeeded off a mark of 105, the third highest-rated in the contest behind top-weight Fast Most Furious (133lb) and Jolly Banner (125lb).
“We’ll see how much his rating goes up and we might have to end up going to the Group races because the programme in Hong Kong is pretty limited to where you can go but we’ll go wherever we can that’s over an appropriate distance,” Cruz said.
Matthew Chadwick’s well-judged front-running ride had the bay crossing the line in a time of 1m 21.80s, a length ahead of the fast-finishing Lucky Express (115lb) and Super Wealthy (114lb).
“Every win is good but my horse did well – he did what he had to do,” Chadwick said.
The Australian-bred was trained by John Moore – who was compulsorily retired – last season, and won his first five races for the seven-time champion trainer.
“We all thought he had a great chance – it goes back to when John Moore trained him, he had apprentice Jerry Chau on the horse and he won with a very fast time (1m 20.88s),” Cruz said.
“And when the owners asked me would you like to train this horse, I said ‘sure, I’d love to’ because what I saw was pretty impressive.”
Buddies’ success gave Chadwick and Cruz a fourth win together this season, and the jockey is keen to team up again at the Hong Kong International Races.
“The Hong Kong Mile will be a completely different ball game with some strong front-runners in there as well, so it’ll be very interesting,” Chadwick said. “Time will tell to see what happens and what path he takes but I haven’t got a ride yet in the mile so if I was offered it, I wouldn’t be turning it down.”
Cruz has tasted success in the Hong Kong Mile previously with Lucky Owners (2003), Beauty Flash (2010) and Beauty Only (2016).
“Matthew (Chadwick) definitely knows how to ride and whatever opportunity I can give him, I would love to have him on my horses,” Cruz said about his former apprentice who partnered the handler’s California Memory to back-to-back wins in the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup.
Cruz sealed a double when Hong Kong International Sale graduate (ISG) Beauty Angel bagged his fourth consecutive win in the Class 3 Panasonic Massage Lounger Handicap (1800m).
