Comeback complete for ex-Hong Kong horse
Once given up on as a racing proposition, former Hong Kong galloper My Favorite is a long way from retirement after a comeback win at Kembla Grange.
My Favorite did it the hard way to win the AJ ‘Bert’ Lillye Memorial on Friday, completing a return to racing that was two years in the making.
“He went in the suspensory ligament – twice,” trainer Clarry Conners said.
“He was never to race again so there is a lot of satisfaction.”
Tommy Berry, who rode My Favorite to the second of his four Hong Kong wins in June 2013, said My Favorite’s fighting qualities were evident in a close finish.
But he was always confident despite a late challenge from the Hugh Bowman-ridden Coolring.
“Once Hughie came to me he was never going to get past me,” Berry said.
While trainer Bjorn Baker missed out with Coolring, backing up inside a week worked for the stable’s in-form Supercoach, an all-the-way winner in the Kembla Grange Stayers’ Cup.
A horse that likes to race near the front, Supercoach won at Gosford last Saturday and his fitness kicked in late for apprentice Andrew Adkins for the most important win of a 44-start career.
Going as strongly as his chasers across the line, Supercoach beat Citations by 1-3/4 lengths with Margarita Rush finishing another length away third.