Right: Cranbourne-trained Apache Cat, pictured during trackwork, ran third in the Hong Kong Sprint on Sunday. 06166 Picture: Stewart Chambers
By Stuart Teather
AUSTRALIANS dominated at Sha Tin racetrack on Sunday in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint, but it wasn’t Apache Cat who took out the 1200-metre race.
Apache Cat, Cranbourne trainer Greg Eurell’s superstar sprinter, went into the $2.4 million race a hot favourite on the back of a strong second in the Winterbottom Stakes in Perth two weeks previously, but the six-year-old gelding came up just short, finishing third.
Australian John Moore trained the winner, $67 outsider Inspiration, who was ridden by another well-known Australian, Darren Beadman.
Former Melbourne galloper Green Birdie finished second.
The Cat was well placed for most of the race, following the frontrunners before finding space at the right time.
But when jockey Corey Brown asked him to kick up a gear in the final sprint, the Cat was sluggish to respond and Brown could only watch as Beadman powered Inspiration ahead. Apache Cat finally did respond, but by then it was too late.
It has been an up-and-down year for Apache Cat. After winning five group 1 sprints in a row in the autumn, he inexplicably ran eighth in the Patinack Classic in his first run off a 24-week spell, before finishing second, beaten a nose, to Takeover Target in the Winterbottom at Ascot.
Eurell is bringing Apache Cat home from Hong Kong, with plans to contest more international races, Singapore and England being touted as possible trips in 2009.
