NEWS PREVIEW
Busan Korea: Sunday July 1 Preview
Cheongdam Dokki Faces Triple Nine In Busan Mayor’s Cup
One of the highlights of the summer racing season takes place at Busan on Sunday when thirteen of the best horses on the peninsula go to post in the Busan Mayor’s Cup (Korean Group 3) over 1 1⁄8 m. They include last year’s winner I’m Your Father, but all eyes will be on the clash between three-time President’s Cup winner Triple Nine and the new star on the stable-block, CheongdamDokki.
CheongdamDokki and Triple Nine have met once before, in the Grand Prix Stakes at Seoul in December last year. In a remarkable race, CheongdamDokki set a blistering early pace but wasn’t quite able to keep it up over the punishing 1 7⁄16 m – the longest distance currently used in Korean racing – and he ultimately finished 4th with Triple Nine running a big race in 3rd. DongbangDaero, who closed late on and beat both running 2nd to winner Power Blade, is among those who join them on Sunday.
Since that Grand Prix, CheongdamDokki has looked invulnerable. He’s raced three times for three facile victories and has been steadily relieving Clean Up Joy, formerly the top-rated horse at Seoul, of the silverware he had amassed in recent years. Having beaten him in the KRA Cup Classic last autumn, CheongdamDokki beat Clean Up Joy in both the Herald Business and YTN Cups this Spring, the older horse having won all three of those races the year before. Now in advance of a likely tilt at the Korea Cup in September, he faces a true test, going to Busan to face Triple Nine on his home track. It is a test he will be expected to pass.
Triple Nine remains the benchmark against which all other horses are judged in Korea. He held his own at the Dubai World Cup Carnival at the start of 2017 and returned to beat stablemate Power Blade on his way to a record-equalling third straight win in the President’s Cup. Power Blade would gain revenge in the Grand Prix but Triple Nine lost nothing in defeat that day. He has only raced once in 2018, making a rare foray into the handicap ranks in March and coming away, inevitably, with another victory. He did trial in public last week although offered few clues. The torch may be passed at Busan on Sunday.
The Busan Mayor’s Cup is race 5 of a six-race Sunday card at Busan which runs from 12:40pm to 5:10pm local Korean time.
One of the highlights of the summer racing season takes place at Busan on Sunday when thirteen of the best horses on the peninsula go to post in the Busan Mayor’s Cup (Korean Group 3) over 1 1⁄8 m. They include last year’s winner I’m Your Father, but all eyes will be on the clash between three-time President’s Cup winner Triple Nine and the new star on the stable-block, CheongdamDokki. CheongdamDokki and Triple Nine have met once before, in the Grand Prix Stakes at Seoul in December last year. In a remarkable race, CheongdamDokki set a blistering early pace but wasn’t quite able to keep it up over the punishing 1 7⁄16 m – the longest distance currently used in Korean racing – and he ultimately finished 4th with Triple Nine running a big race in 3rd. DongbangDaero, who closed late on and beat both running 2nd to winner Power Blade, is among those who join them on Sunday.
Since that Grand Prix, CheongdamDokki has looked invulnerable. He’s raced three times for three facile victories and has been steadily relieving Clean Up Joy, formerly the top-rated horse at Seoul, of the silverware he had amassed in recent years. Having beaten him in the KRA Cup Classic last autumn, CheongdamDokki beat Clean Up Joy in both the Herald Business and YTN Cups this Spring, the older horse having won all three of those races the year before. Now in advance of a likely tilt at the Korea Cup in September, he faces a true test, going to Busan to face Triple Nine on his home track. It is a test he will be expected to pass.
Triple Nine remains the benchmark against which all other horses are judged in Korea. He held his own at the Dubai World Cup Carnival at the start of 2017 and returned to beat stablemate Power Blade on his way to a record-equalling third straight win in the President’s Cup. Power Blade would gain revenge in the Grand Prix but Triple Nine lost nothing in defeat that day. He has only raced once in 2018, making a rare foray into the handicap ranks in March and coming away, inevitably, with another victory. He did trial in public last week although offered few clues. The torch may be passed at Busan on Sunday.
The Busan Mayor’s Cup is race 5 of a six-race Sunday card at Busan which runs from 12:40pm to 5:10pm local Korean time.
