RACING:Hong Kong's international card will be familiar territory to the globally-renowned Irish jockey Johnny Murtagh tomorrow morning but Nenagh trainer Tom Hogan is hoping his star performer Gordon Lord Byron can open up a whole new world.
The horse originally bought for just €2,000 can complete a fairytale 2012 for connections if successful in the near €2 million Longines Mile, one of four hugely-lucrative Group One prizes on offer at Sha Tin.
The Mile is due off at 7.50am Irish time tomorrow morning and Gordon Lord Byron has been catching the eye after a spectacular piece of work at the track earlier in the week.
Winner of the Group One Prix de la Foret on Arc day at Longchamp in October, Gordon Lord Byron has been one of the success stories of this year and Hogan plans to take his rapidly progressive gelding to Dubai in the early part of 2013.
However his first task will be getting the better of local star Ambitious Dragon and star French mare Siyouma.
“We still think there’s some improvement there with him – in the summer he was still growing. Sunday will tell us a lot about him.” said Hogan’s son Andrew. Just two Irish-trained horses have ever won at the Hong Kong carnival. Additional Risk scored for Dermot Weld and Mick Kinane in 1991 while in 2004 Alexander Goldrun landed the Cup race (10f) for Jim Bolger and Kevin Manning.
