Smullen eyes Group glory in Hong Kong Cup aboard Free Eagle

Pat Smullen is set to have two shots at putting a final Group One seal on a vintage 2015 for Ireland's champion jockey in Hong Kong on Sunday.

Champion for the eighth time with a tally of 103 winners in Ireland this season, Smullen brought his Group One career tally to 20 with four top-flight victories to date this year, including on Free Eagle in Royal Ascot’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes in June.

The Dermot Weld-trained colt is a general 4-1 favourite to end his racing career on a victory in the Hong Kong Cup this weekend en-route to starting a stallion career at the Irish National Stud where he will stand at a fee of €20,000.

Smullen however has also come in for the ride on Sir Michael Stoute’s Cannock Chase, winner of the Canadian International on his last start, in the mile-and-a-half HK$16.5 million (€2 million) Vase on Sunday morning.

With Ryan Moore committed to ride Aidan O'Brien's Highland Reel in the same race, Stoute has moved to renew his association with Ireland's champion who guided Snow Sky to Hardwicke success for the legendary Newmarket trainer at Ascot during the summer.

“I’m booked to ride him and only if something were to happen to Aidan’s horse, and Ryan became available, would that change,” Smullen confirmed.

“He’s a horse with a good profile for the race, a progressive horse . . . His last race in Canada was his best race and his run in the Prince Of Wales’s was good too. Obviously Flintshire looks the one to beat but this one looks to have a good chance,” added Smullen who on Monday picked up the flat prize at the Horse Racing Ireland Awards ceremony in Leopardstown.

Sha Tin

Free Eagle’s Prince Of Wales’s victory was added to by his stable companion Fascinating Rock in October’s Champion Stakes while Smullen pulled off a memorable Group One double on Hugo Palmer’s filly Covert Love in the Irish Oaks and the Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp on Arc day.

The jockey has ridden winners at Sha Tin and Happy Valley in the past but is eager to secure more Group One success in Hong Kong.

“I believe the race draws will be known when I get there on Thursday and that will be important for the Cup over a mile-and-a-quarter. It will be less important in the Vase with a longer run to the first bend. But I would like a decent draw for Free Eagle,” said Smullen.

“I’ve ridden a couple of winners at Sha Tin in the past and it’s a very fair track. If you’re on the right horse, and you get a bit of luck, then the best horse usually wins,” he added.

Cannock Chase is a 7/1 third-favourite for the Vase behind the reigning title-holder, France’s Flintshire, while Highland Reel is a 6/1 second favourite to break Aidan O’Brien’s duck at the prestigious international carnival.

The third Irish starter on Sunday morning will be the 2014 Horse of the Year Sole Power, who has a fourth tilt at the six furlong Sprint.

Chris Hayes renews his partnership with Eddie Lynam’s stalwart who ran ninth in the Hong Kong event a year ago but came closest to breaking his duck at the six furlong trip when runner up in 2013. Sole Power also ran in the Sha Tin event in 2011 when ninth and is a general 16/1 to finally win it this weekend.

Hayes was out of luck on Ireland’s most famous sprinter in his last start in the Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp, but prior to that secured a hugely popular win on Sole Power in the Flying Five over Champions Weekend at the Curragh.