Fownes back at his “home ground”, and “not without a chance” for championship defense

Conventional wisdom says Caspar Fownes is unlikely to go back-to-back as champion trainer – but Fownes has never been one to follow convention.

Only John Size, the incomparable 13-time title holder, has won consecutive trainers' championships in Hong Kong this century. The cyclical nature of the sport here makes it hard: a roster that wins a championship spends the following season carrying the ratings it earned doing so.

Fownes won his fifth title the hard way, with a squad of battling handicappers that scrapped its way to a record number of wins at Happy Valley. Forty-six of his 69 winners last season came at the city track, more than any trainer has managed in a season, and no trainer has won more races there across a career.

He ticked off the first of the new campaign on Wednesday night – No Other Choice, a Class 5 sprinter rated 34, broke through at his 16th attempt in the Admiralty Handicap over 1200m, clearing out by four and three-quarter lengths under James Orman after being held up at the tail of the field.

Asked whether he considered himself a chance of defending the title, Fownes laughed it off.

"Early days, brother. Putting the pressure on already," he said. "I'm just trying my best and we'll see how I'm doing."

But pressed again, and the competitor surfaced.

"I'll say I'm not without a chance. Let's put it that way."

He says his stable has come back in good order. "I'm happy with the way the horses have summered and it looks like being a nice season again, a competitive season. There's some good cattle in there too."

Not that Fownes is counting No Other Choice as “good cattle” just yet.

"He's been a very disappointing horse to date," Fownes said. "We thought he'd run really well at his last start last season, but he had a heart irregularity, so you had to forgive that race. That's the reason we said, 'We'll keep him for the first few runs this season and see how he does.' He's put up a very good performance, so I'm very happy with that. The owner is a good friend of mine.

"He needs to improve. He still owes the owner quite a bit of money, so hopefully he can win in Class 4 and then we'll slowly recover some of the purchase price of the horse. He's still a little bit of a weak horse. He's quite lightly framed, but he's won with a bit of authority there. He's made himself look better than he probably is."

Fownes credited the ride by Orman, who also opened his season account after a solid return of 32 wins last term.  "Great ride by Jimmy. I said, 'Just give him a chance, man. There looks to be a little bit of speed on. Just bring him back.' At the 700 (meter mark), it was all over. He just folded up like that."

A big, boisterous crowd cheered the winner home and the Beer Garden was bouncing, but out on the track the clock told a different story from the one Sha Tin had produced three days earlier.

The surface was rated Good on the A course, yet the first two Class 5 sprints on the card were run in 1:11.45 and 1:10.94, both outside the class standard of 1:09.85. The Class 4 event over 1650m went in 1:42.25, 2.4 seconds slower than the 1:39.85 standard for the grade. 

At Sha Tin on Sunday, Ka Ying Rising had gone 1:06.11 for 1200m in the Group Three HKSAR Chief Executive's Cup, lowering his own course record by 0.99 seconds and breaking the Sha Tin 1200m mark for the fifth time. Four class records fell across the meeting, among them a Class 5 sprint over the same trip won in 1:08.59. Happy Valley always races slower than Sha Tin, but the gap was wide enough to be noted.

Fownes wasn’t bothered.

"The track's all right," he said. "The previous race, you couldn't get a Class 5 to go that slow – they ran one forty-two and a half. But I think as long as they let down, I'm happy with it."

Was it good to be back at Happy Valley? The answer was immediate.

"Yeah, of course. Home ground."

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓