RACING:THE AIDAN O'Brien–trained pair of Joshua Tree and Beethoven will attempt to join an exclusive group when they fly the Irish flag in tomorrow morning's €6.4 million Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Festival.
Joshua Tree in the mile-and-a-half Vase and Beethoven in the Mile are part of a sparkling international line up for the four Group One races at Sha Tin and Colm O’Dongohue will be on board both Ballydoyle hopes.
It is now 19 years since Additional Risk secured a memorable victory for Dermot Weld and Mick Kinane at the former British colony in the Mile and the only Irish-trained winner since that triumph was Jim Bolger’s Alexander Goldrun in the 2004 International Cup.
Top-flight European runners such as Vision d’Etat and Snow Fairy go in this weekend’s 10-furlong Cup while the French also have a strong hand in the Vase with the Melbourne Cup winner Americain joined by other European stars such as Mastery and Redwood.
Beethoven is a 20 to 1 outsider in the Mile against Paco Boy but O’Donoghue said: “Both our horses are in great condition and I think they will be suited by the ground and the way races are run here.”
The Vase is run at 6.00 tomorrow morning Irish time with the Mile off at 7.50. The Sprint is due off at 6.40 and the Cup at 8.30.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/5edb3a01-3854-414a-a4d1-6fd4b3f3ce92.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)