Background
& History
The Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile is the richest
international mile race in the world carrying a value of HK$14m (US$1.8m).
Formerly known as the Hong Kong International Bowl, the race debuted
in 1991 to mark the staging of the 22nd Asian Racing Conference in Hong
Kong. It was renamed the Hong Kong Mile and run over 1600m from the
old distance of 1400m for the first time in 1999.
The Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile has consistently lured many of the
greatest milers and middle-distance runners from throughout the globe
and it now has a purse that is seven times higher than when first run
14 years ago.
Longshots have frequently fared well in the Hong Kong Mile. Inaugural
winner, Additional Risk, scored at odds of 33/1 for Irish trainer
Dermot Weld and jockey Mick Kinane.
Glen Kate landed the second renewal at odds of 25/1 and Monopolize
won the Bowl at odds of 12/1 in 1995, only to register a repeat victory
at 6/1 odds in 1996 for Aussie trainer Grahame Begg. Monopolize
remains the only horse to have twice won the race and Begg the only
trainer to achieve dual triumphs.
In between, a favourite obliged in the form of Winning Partners,
who scored at odds of 2.7 in 1993 for Hong Kong trainer Neville Begg
with Kinane the successful jockey again, while Soviet Line
won for Britain 12 months later.
Having won on Monopolize in 1996, jockey Darren Beadman emulated
Kinane's feats in landed back-to-back Bowls when Catalan Opening
scored for Sydney training genius, Bart Cummings.
Jim And Tonic, plotted by astute French trainer Francois Doumen,
won the 1998 Hong Kong International Bowl at odds of nearly 10/1.
With the race now upped in distance to a mile and at Gr.2 level, the
next winner was Docksider, going in at the shortest odds to
date of 2.1 having previously run a close third in the Breeders' Cup
Mile for American owner Gary Tanaka and English trainer John Hills.
One the most famous races ever staged
in Hong Kong followed in 2000 – the gripping duel between Australasian
champion mare Sunline and Fairy King Prawn, the hometown
hero.
Sunline dictated matters from the front but off the home turn
Fairy King Prawn unleashed the kind of kick that brought him
victory in the HK Sprint and the Yasuda Kinen within the previous 12
months. The 70,000 plus crowd bayed as The Prawn reduced a seemingly
impossible deficit with every stride – but the New Zealand mare clung
on by a short head.
Longshots made a return to the victory parade in 2001 when Eishin
Preston went from last and widest of all turning for home to bag
the spoils for Japan at odds of 23/1 - not a bad price for a horse that
won by a race record margin of 3.3 lengths, and one that would later
return to Sha Tin to claim a brace of Audemars Piguet QEII Cups.
The winner's odds more doubled to a record quote of 48/1 in 2002 as
reigning HK Derby hero Olympic Express withstood the late charge
of the reigning local Horse of the Year, Electronic Unicorn
in one of the finest training performances of Ivan Allan's trophy-laden
career. Somehow Allan managed to extract victory from a horse that only
three weeks earlier had finished over 20 lengths last in a 1000m sprint,
its first run in six months.
Hong Kong secured another home quinella in 2003 when Lucky Owners,
who three months later would secure a memorable double in the Mercedes-Benz
Hong Kong Derby, scrambled past the line in front of Bowman's Crossing
for Tony Cruz and jockey Felix Coetzee.
Finally, perseverance paid off for Firebreak last year. The
Godolphin horse ran a close fifth behind Lucky Owners in 2003
but raced close to the pace and led inside the final furlong to score
by a from local hopes Perfect Partner and The Duke.
Wins by country in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile (formerly the HK
Bowl) - 14 renewals to date
3 – Australia, Hong Kong
2 – Great Britain
1 – France, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, UAE, USA
Past
Winners
