THAT'S YOUR LOTTO

Sir Alex Ferguson out of luck in Hong Kong as Spirit Dancer well-beaten but Giavellotto wins £2.4 million race

There were four Group 1 races in Hong Kong on Sunday

Jack Keene, Senior horse racing reporter

Published: 9:44, 8 Dec 2024
Updated: 9:50, 8 Dec 2024

OISIN MURPHY and Marco Botti's Lotto numbers came up as they hit the jackpot in Hong Kong.

Sent off an unfancied 12-1 shot by Far East punters, Giavellotto bolted up in the Hong Kong Vase and netted a whopping £1.3 million in the process.

Giavellotto and Oisin Murphy won the £2.4 million Hong Kong VaseCredit: Getty

But there was disappointment for Sir Alex Ferguson, as his money-spinning star Spirit Dancer could only finish ninth in the Hong Kong Cup.

The result in the Vase means Murphy has now won a Group 1 in every major racing nation in the world, but it was a first taste of top-level glory for Newmarket-based Botti in seven years.

If you weren’t up at the crack of dawn to watch him win by two and a half lengths, you could be forgiven for thinking it was smooth sailing. It was anything but.

The five-year-old was just beginning to build up a head of steam at the top of the straight when the gap in front of him closed and he was knocked right back onto his heels.

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Murphy pulled himself and the horse together and pushed forward for another crack - and this time they parted like the Red Sea as he swept through for an impressive win, shushing the raucous 70,000 crowd.

Globetrotter Dubai Honour was also bumped and barged around and ran a cracker for William Haggas to finish second, while Luxembourg faded into fifth on his final start for Aidan O’Brien.

Murphy said: “I feel on top of the world. This horse has just kept getting better as he’s got older and he was brilliant today.

“Usually when you get stopped the way he was two furlongs out it is incredibly difficult to get the momentum up again, especially in a very competitive race like that.

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“Marco has done an amazing job with him and I’m incredibly grateful. I’m very lucky to ride at these sorts of meetings around the world and I’ve wanted to have a winner here for a long time.”

British-trained runners were dominant in this race in the early 2000’s, but this overdue win was our first since Red Cadeaux was on target for Ed Dunlop 12 years ago.

It was third time lucky for Botti himself after a couple of stabs with Jakkalberry and Joshua Tree back in the day.

He grinned: “It’s an amazing feeling, we have thought he was capable of winning a race like this for a long time.

“There wasn’t much room at the top of the straight but Oisin didn’t panic and he had the gears and the time to pick the leaders up.

“It has been a little while since our last Group 1. We've had a few tries in this race and it’s a dream come true to win it.”

Sir Alex Ferguson’s Spirit Dancer couldn’t pull off another big-money win abroad when fading out of contention inside the final furlong in the Hong Kong Cup.

His owner-breeder was mobbed by fans and serenaded with ‘glory, glory Man United’ as he took his vantage point by the winning post - but his horse couldn’t get near local hero Romantic Warrior who won the race for the third straight year and sent the crowd wild.