Ferraris had to jump from the widest draw of all in the 14-horse field. He was riding the Mark Newnham-trained My Wish, who had won the Hong Kong Classic Mile and finished second in the Hong Kong Classic Cup over 1800m, which we both raced for a cheque of HK$13 million and Ferraris was aboard in both races. The Hong Kong Derby has a stake of over 60 million when converted to South African rands, meaning the winning rider scoops a cheque of about R6 million, so Ferraris was a hair's breadth away from a massive payday aboard the small but coura- geous four-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding, who is by the stallion Shocking.
Ferraris dropped My Wish out to last place from the wide draw and the writing seemed on the wall for him when they went a crawl up front with the pace being set by Hugh Bowman on the Casper Fownes-trained Lo Rider, who was paying HK$19 rand on the Tote.
Cap Ferrat
The eventual winner, Cap Ferrat, who paid HK$26 on the Tote, had the box seat in third place on the rail.
Ferraris never panicked despite being in last place behind the slow pace and he made sure he had cover all the way around the final turn before being slung shot to the outside.
Cap Ferrat had stolen a march down the inside and My Wish looked to have a hopeless task upon straightening.
However, he then began low flying on the outside and from 100m out it was touch and go whether he was going to reach Cap Ferrat.
As they flashed past the line with Ferraris extracting every bit of extra he could out of his mount it seemed as though he had done it, but this was just the illusion created by his faster finishing mount.
The slow motion replays showed that Cap Ferra...
Ferraris dropped My Wish out to last place from the wide draw and the writing seemed on the wall for him when they went a crawl up front with the pace being set by Hugh Bowman on the Casper Fownes-trained Lo Rider, who was paying HK$19 rand on the Tote.
Cap Ferrat
The eventual winner, Cap Ferrat, who paid HK$26 on the Tote, had the box seat in third place on the rail.
Ferraris never panicked despite being in last place behind the slow pace and he made sure he had cover all the way around the final turn before being slung shot to the outside.
Cap Ferrat had stolen a march down the inside and My Wish looked to have a hopeless task upon straightening.
However, he then began low flying on the outside and from 100m out it was touch and go whether he was going to reach Cap Ferrat.
As they flashed past the line with Ferraris extracting every bit of extra he could out of his mount it seemed as though he had done it, but this was just the illusion created by his faster finishing mount.
The slow motion replays showed that Cap Ferra...
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The Mercury (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 24, 2025