At a selections announcement held April 9, Hong Kong Jockey Club unveiled 13 selected runners for the 2015 Audemars Piguet QEII Cup. Last year’s champion and Hong Kong’s Horse of the Year ‘Designs On Rome’ will compete with a world-class field comprising of top local rivals and four talented overseas raiders during the HK$20 million International Group 1 Audemars Piguet QEII Cup (2000m) at Sha Tin Racecourse April 26.
The full list of the 13 selected runners include: five-year-old ‘Designs On Rome’ of Hong Kong, four-year-old ‘Helene Happy Star’ of Hong Kong, seven-year-old ‘Military Attack’ of Hong Kong, six-year-old ‘Blazing Speed’ of Hong Kong, nine-year-old ‘California Memory’ of Hong Kong, five-year-old ‘Packing Llaregyb’ of Hong Kong, five-year-old ‘Mr Gnocchi’ of Hong Kong, seven-year-old ‘Same World’ of Hong Kong, five-year-old ‘Helene Super Star’ of Hong Kong, four-year-old ‘Staphanos’ of Japan, four-year-old ‘Criterion’ of Australia, nine-year-old ‘Red Cadeaux’ of Great Britain, six-year-old ‘Smoking Sun’ of France. For a full list on the stats of the runners click here.
“The APQEII Cup has been attracting world-class runners since 1995 and this year is no different,” said William A. Nader, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Executive Director of Racing. “We know that the likes of Designs On Rome, Military Attack, Red Cadeaux and Criterion are world-class racehorses, and it is exciting and satisfying to see them among the selections, but what is particularly thrilling is that we have another potential star from Japan heading to Sha Tin. Epiphaneia was among those that made the line-up last year and he went on to win the Japan Cup. Staphanos is in the same ownership and could yet progress to that kind of level if his first-up run this year is anything to go by, and that makes him an exciting contender for this year’s QEII. This mix of established heroes and emerging stars is one facet of what makes the APQEII Cup one of the world’s top Group 1 contests.”
For this year’s race event, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has named actor Leon Lai as the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup Ambassador. He will be in attendance at the 2000m race at Sha Tin Racecourse, April 26 and present a souvenir to the winning connections. To mark the occasion Audemars Piguet has also created a Royal Oak Chronograph QEII Cup 2015 Limited Edition timepiece.
Audemars Piguet QEII Cup Ambassador Leon Lai joins William A Nader, Executive Director of Racing of HKJC, and David von Gunten, CEO, Greater China of Audemars Piguet, to announce the selected runners for the 2015 Audemars Piguet QEII Cup
