Queensland Derby rivals follow Providence to Hong Kong

The Queensland Derby form is coming to Hong Kong in numbers.

Four of Providence’s rivals from the Eagle Farm Group 1 have followed him to Sha Tin, giving next season’s Four-Year-Old Classic Series a strong Queensland Derby flavor.

Runner-up Monopolistic, third-placegetter Inspired Legend, sixth-placegetter Beauty Swift and 10th-placegetter Kilman were among 22 horses to arrive from Australia this week. It means five of the first 10 home in the Queensland Derby over 2,400 metres are now based in Hong Kong.

Monopolistic will join John Size, the three-year-old winning three of his eight starts in Australia and could start out as one of his highest-rated private purchases of recent seasons.

Statistics compiled by Hong Kong racing form analyst Sohil Patel show that if Monopolistic lands in the low-to-mid 80s, any mark of 83 or higher would make him Size’s highest-rated PP since Beauty Legacy began his Hong Kong career from 92 in January 2020.

Even a mark of 82 would be notable. No PP has started out for Size from that figure or higher since Lucky Express began from 82 in May 2020. Bourbonaire, who began on 81 in 2022, has been the closest since, while Helios Express and Ensued both started from 64 and Waikuku arrived on 72.

Inspired Legend will join David Eustace after producing a career-best performance at odds of $91 in the Queensland Derby.

Already raced by Hong Kong owner Bon Ho, the former Les Bridge-trained gelding has won two of his 11 starts. His most recent success came in a Benchmark 64 handicap over 1,500m at Kembla Grange in April.

Beauty Swift will be trained by Tony Cruz, while Kilman joins Me Tsui Yu-sak.

Kilman had beaten Beauty Swift and Providence in the Group 3 Rough Habit Plate over 2,000m, a key Queensland Derby lead-up, before finishing 10th at Eagle Farm.

The influx continues the Queensland Derby’s long association with Hong Kong.

Werther finished second in the 2015 edition before winning the Hong Kong Derby the following season, while Queensland Derby winners Eagle Way, Ruthven and Dark Dream were also transferred to Sha Tin.

Manfred Man Ka-leung has picked up West Of Swindon, winner of the Group 2 Stutt Stakes over the mile at The Valley last spring for Ciaron Maher, although his form tapered off after that.

Three horses from the shipment will join James Cummings, taking his new stable to 26 at the time of writing.

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