TOP MELBOURNE CUP FANCY AIMING FOR A BETTER RESULT IN THE LONGINES HONG KONG VASE

By Darren Winningham and Graham Potter | Tuesday, December 9, 2025

At trackwork on Tuesday morning, HRO’s Darren Winningham, ever-busy on assignment in Hong Kong, spoke to Mark Power representing the Joseph O'Brien stable who saddles Al Riffa in the HK$26 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase on Sunday.

Winno: “How did Al Riffa go at trackwork this morning.”

MP: “Nothing too strenuous … just a simple routine canter and he'll do something similar again tomorrow. He’s moving well.”

Winno: “Coming out of the Melbourne Cup, was it always the plan to take him home and then bring him to Hong Kong.”

MP: “Yeah, that was the plan. He’s put up a couple of air miles already, so he has proved he can travel. It was easier to get the horse home so he could get back to his routine in his own stable and do his routine work there for a while. If he wasn’t a good traveller we wouldn’t have done it. He is a good traveller.”

Al Riffa last ran in the Melbourne Cup Mate as a strong fancy, but he was never a threat when finishing unplaced 9.35 lengths behind Half Yours over the 3200m trip. Prior to that, Al Riffa had completed a notable double winning the Group 2 Curragh Cup and the Group 1 Irish St Leger … both over 2816m.

The LONGINES Hong Kong Vase brings the distance test back to 2400m.

More articles