Pictures: Garrix ran on well from well back in the field (HKJC)
The SA-bred Vercingetorix gelding Garrix made his debut in Hong Kong today (Monday) and ran a fine third in a class 3 event over 1400m at Sha Tin under Luke Ferraris.
Garrix is now owned by Dr Andreas Jacobs of Maine Chance Farms fame, which is interesting considering Mary Slack was only the second non-resident to become a Hong Kong horseracing owner in 2022.
Garrix is trained by Douglas Whyte and sat in ninth place of the 13 horse field. He was on the fence after Ferraris had dropped him out from a draw of eight.
Ferraris switched him into the centre coming off the turn and a nice gap opened which enabled the strongly built chestnut to run on very well.
Despite starting at 40/1 odds he was beaten only a neck running off a local rating of 82, which meant he had to carry 132 pounds, one more pound than the winner Baby Shakura (Tagaloa), an Australian-bred four-year-old who clinched a hattrick and his fifth career win overall.
Earlier, the Brett Crawford-trained classic hopeful Mr Incredible (Toronado) finished second in a class 3 handicap over 1200m running off a local rating of 80.
He jumped from draw 11 under Karis Teetan, who dropped him out to last.
He ran on in eyecatching style in the straight and looked set to convert favouritism.
However, the lowly drawn Grand Eagle, who is rated 68 and was getting 14 pounds from Mr Incredible, had traveled well throughout on the fence and burst through the centre under Jerry Chau to win by half-a-length.
Mr Incredible should enjoy a step up in trip and will be an exciting horse to follow.
His record is now five starts for three wins and a second.
