Flintshire Flying Ahead of Vase

Juddmonte Farms’ Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}), expected to be a solid favorite for Sunday’s G1 Longines Hong Kong Vase, did very little to tarnish his reputation Wednesday morning in his final serious piece of work ahead of the 2400-meter test. 

With exercise rider Annelie Ackerman in the saddle, the 4-year-old two-minute-licked for the opening 800 meters of a six-furlong gallop, then flashed home neatly with a final quarter-mile in a sparkling :22.3. He later took two turns of the expansive Sha Tin walking ring. 

“He was beautiful this morning and we are all very pleased,” confirmed Richard Lambert, traveling head lad to trainer Andre Fabre. “The ground here is fast and he just loves it. The inner side of the course is a little bit better, as it is all new. This is the kind of ground you’d want for him; he just thrives on it.” 

Lambert continued, “We put him on the turf so that he’d get a feel for the course. When he got into the straight, he just went on his own, according to Annelie, who is all smiles. We then took him to the parade ring, as usual when we send horses over here. We like them to get accustomed to the place, not to be surprised on the big day, even though I suspect there will be many more people to watch on Sunday. There won’t be much more to do now. He’s done what he was supposed to do.” 

Though he is winless in five starts this term, Flintshire has performed admirably in some of the world’s top middle-distance tests. Runner-up to Cirrus des Aigles (Fr) (Even Top {Ire}) in Ascot’s G1 Coronation Cup June 6, he turned in his lone sub-par effort of the season when fifth–placed fourth–over unsuitably easy turf in the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud June 29. Second as the odds-on favorite in the G2 Prix Foy Sept. 14, the bay outran odds of 20-1 to fill the same spot behind the repeating Treve (Fr) (Motivator {GB}) in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Oct. 5 and ran with credit to finish closest to Main Sequence (Aldebaran) in the Nov. 1 GI Breeders’ Cup Turf.