Hong Kong Mile Tips & Betting Preview

The Hong Kong Mile is a Group 1 contest for three year olds and upwards over a distance of 1m and is run in December each year at Sha Tin racecourse. The race has a stunning purse of HK$20,000,000 and is one of four major races to be run on Hong Kong International Race Day. Read on for our experts’ thoughts and betting tips for the race.

A winner of the 2014 Hong Kong Mile, Able Friend is looking to repeat the feat in 2016 for trainer John Moore. The Shamardal gelding could only muster up third place in his follow up bid last season and he has been plagued by injury since so has only seen a racecourse once in the past twelve months.

That was over six furlongs on the 20th of November where he ran a creditable race in 4th behind Not Listenin’tome. It may not have been a fantastic result but it was exactly what he needed in a bid to get him back to racecourse fitness. It was a brilliant trial run and if he comes on for it he must be a massive player. Looking in excellent shape on Thursday morning’s race course gallop, he looks primed to go close on Sunday.

Satono Aladdin was tailed off in the Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin twelve months ago but he had a horrible draw in 14 so had valid excuses. The horse from the land of the rising sun has since been a Group 2 winner two times in his native Japan and he comes here off the back of a solid 5th in the Group 1 Kyoto Mile Championship.

Fellow Japanese star Neorealism was third in the Mile Championship though so holds him on that form and he worked well on the Sha Tin All-Weather track during the week. Aidan O’Brien also has Cougar Mountain and he has to put a poor run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile behind him. He has an outside chance but looks hard to fancy for win purposes.