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Glorious Days has the chance to confirm his superiority at the head of Hong Kong’s tough mile division when he seeks a second successive win in the HKG1 Stewards’ Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday.
In last month’s Longines Hong Kong Mile, John Size’s charge secured his first international G1 victory with a powerful drive that mowed down a world-class field of milers.
Among the vanquished in second that day was Hong Kong’s young pretender Gold-Fun: Richard Gibson’s trainee, successful in the G2 Jockey Club Mile this term, is set to re-oppose on Sunday.
Glorious Days headed into December’s international test without a preparatory run and that is something that jockey Douglas Whyte believes will be to his mount’s advantage in the Stewards’ Cup, a race in which Hong Kong Mile winners have had mixed results.
Nine times Mile victors have attempted a follow-up win in the Stewards’ Cup since 2002 and only thrice have they prevailed (2010/11 Beauty Flash, 2008/09 & 2007/08 Good Ba Ba).
“I know the records don’t read well, coming from the international races to the Stewards’ Cup, but he’s only had the one run, so he still has fresh legs as far as I’m concerned. John couldn’t be happier with him either,” said Whyte.
Glorious Days warmed up for his aim at a repeat with a quiet barrier trial over 1200m of Sha Tin’s all-weather track on 10 January, and there were no surprises as he crossed the line an easy fourth of the five participants.
“His trial was fine. It was pretty much straight-forward work for him, the typical Glorious Days – don’t let him do too much and just stretch his legs,” said Whyte.
“I think John was in two minds whether to trial him but he doesn’t do much at track work and he certainly felt nice and fresh within himself.
“If anything he’s become wiser to the fact that it’s not necessary to come with that enormous turn-of-foot on the all-weather track like he has done in his previous trials leading into the big ones, which might have knocked the edge off him in the past.
"He had the pacifiers on, which keeps him a little bit under control, as opposed to the blinkers, so mentally, action-wise and fitness-wise I couldn’t fault him.
"If anything, the trial might just knock that bit of freshness off him, open his windpipe and get him straight for next week.”
The Hussonet gelding’s trainer has an outstanding record in the race too. Size has landed the Stewards’ Cup five times and knows how to prepare a horse for back-to-back wins in the contest, having achieved that feat with Electronic Unicorn in 2002 and 2003.
The 2013 Stewards’ Cup saw Glorious Days reverse the previous month’s Hong Kong Mile form and sweep aside his old rival Ambitious Dragon.
On Sunday the six-year-old will face another reigning Horse of the Year in the John Moore-trained Military Attack, seeking a first win of the season after running fourth in the G1 Hong Kong Cup (2000m) last start.
Also set to line up from the Moore stable are G1 Hong Kong Vase (2400m) winner Dominant, last season’s G1 Champions Mile winner Dan Excel and recent HKG3 January Cup (1800m) victor Same World.
Xtension is another Moore trainee among the entries.
The Caspar Fownes-trained Packing Whiz was third in the Hong Kong Mile, while stablemate Helene Spirit, seventh in that same contest, was runner-up in the 2013 Champions Mile.
Also engaged are the Size-trained Real Specialist and the Tony Cruz-trained pair of Blazing Speed and Pure Champion.
Akeed Mofeed, among the initial 13 entrants, will likely side-step the race and wait for the HKG1 Citibank Hong Kong Gold Cup next month, according to trainer Richard Gibson.
