O’Reilly filly on a trail of gold after debut win

Dragon Too Hot To Handle In HK Gr 1

Ambitious Dragon completed a golden night in Hong Kong for WS when he won yesterday’s Gr 1 Hong Kong Derby at Sha Tin. The exciting son of resident stallion Pins raced away with the 2000 metre feature for trainer Tony Millard and jockey Maxime Guyon.

The French rider has struck up an outstanding association with the four-year-old and at their previous appearance last month had combined to land the Gr 1 Classic Cup – Guyon had confidently predicted a Derby victory after that success and so it proved last night. Ambitious Dragon, who has now won six of his 11 starts, is out of Oregon mare Golden Gamble who is from the family of the Gr 2 Concorde Handicap winner Needuask, who also finished runner-up in the Gr 1 Railway Handicap.

Earlier on the programme, the WS-stud bred and sold Forest Star downed his class three rivals over 1400 metres for the trainer-jockey combination of Tony Cruz and Jeff Lloyd. A $140,000 Premier Sale buy at Karaka in 2007 for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, he is a half-brother to the Listed New Zealand St Leger winner Ritzy Lady.

They are out of the winning Centaine mare Ever Clever who is a half-sister to the South African Gr 3 winner Hancock Park (Pompeii Court). Forest Star has now won four times in Hong Kong.

Recent News
27 August 2025

The Corner with Garry Chittick

We live in a vastly different world to the world I was born into 80 years ago. Of course, I would not feel the effects of the political values of the time with any likelihood of understanding, perhaps for 30 years, and yet the environment in which my cousins and I were raised in has had an entrenched effect on our lives.

Read More
27 August 2025

Ocean Park sires Wednesday winner for Sargent

Ocean Park’s son Hooligan Tommy made it three wins on the bounce with an impressive first-up Randwick victory, further boosting the credentials of his sire, already responsible for four Group 1 winners.

Read More