Chapter 104. Excellent Gate Position
On Wednesday, the Hong Kong URA Association officially released the entry list for this year's Hong Kong International Races.
Including Silence Suzuka, more than a dozen overseas Uma Musume had come to participate in the first International Races held after Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty.
However, despite the political changes, the Hong Kong URA Association itself had undergone almost no official restructuring. The management team remained largely the same as before, and even tomorrow night's barrier draw ceremony would proceed according to last year's familiar format. In any case, none of this would affect the preparations of Shuta An and Silence Suzuka.
"By the way, Ann…"
While leaning beside her lover and reviewing the entry list together, Silence Suzuka suddenly asked softly:
"Have you ever thought about visiting your father's hometown?"
"Dober still has to prepare for the Arima Kinen, so we need to return next Monday."
Shuta An shook his head lightly. "And by then, there'll only be half a month left before the Arima Kinen begins. I'll have far too much work to handle."
The young man paused briefly before continuing,
"Besides, even if I went… from here, the distance is practically the same as flying from Sapporo to Tokyo three separate times. And there's nobody there I actually know."
He lowered his eyes slightly.
"It's only my father's hometown. It isn't mine."
"Mm~"
Silence Suzuka quietly gave up the idea of traveling north together with him. Instead, she obediently leaned against his shoulder and continued reading through the Hong Kong Cup entry list.
"There are eleven opponents in total this year."
Shuta An counted them one by one, then suddenly smiled toward the Uma Musume beside him.
"There are actually quite a few familiar names."
Silence Suzuka carefully scanned the list again before nodding.
"Indeed…we've met many of them before in either Hong Kong or Dubai."
"Not just that."
Shuta An narrowed his eyes slightly. His finger stopped on one particular name.
"I remember the Australian Trainers mentioning this Uma Musume back when Suzuka went overseas for the Cox Plate."
"Sunline?"
Silence Suzuka tilted her head slightly. The name felt unfamiliar to her.
"Yes."
The young man nodded.
"At the time, those Trainers told me that Miss Sunline had already won two G1 races and possessed Hall of Fame-level potential."
"Oh?"
Hearing her lover praise another Uma Musume so directly, Silence Suzuka's expression immediately became faintly blank.
"Hall of Fame potential, huh~"
Her tone remained calm, but the atmosphere around her clearly changed.
"Then she must be the biggest opponent in this race, right?"
"How could that be?"
Shuta An immediately understood what kind of mood the Uma Musume had fallen into and quickly corrected himself.
"In my opinion, the biggest suspense in this Hong Kong Cup is simply how many lengths Suzuka will win by over second place."
If any outsider carefully reviewed this year's Hong Kong Cup lineup, they would likely arrive at the same conclusion.
Among the five local Hong Kong representatives—
Helene Express had only managed one victory from three starts this year, qualifying largely thanks to Hong Kong's unique rating system.
Survey General had not won a single race this season, relying entirely on past achievements to secure entry.
Cruff was an old acquaintance whose class difference compared to Silence Suzuka was obvious enough that nobody paid much attention anymore.
LORDOFWARRIORS had won a graded stakes race this year and was considered one of the local main forces.
SCORE, meanwhile, had claimed a local G3 and was regarded by the media as one of the few hopes capable of defending Hong Kong's home honor.
(I can't find the corresponding race year. I'm sorry if there are any discrepancies in the Umamusume's name)
But frankly speaking, compared to this year's Hong Kong Sprint and Hong Kong Mile fields, the Hong Kong Cup lineup looked considerably weaker. None of the local runners currently possessed true G1-winning level ability.
As for the overseas challengers—excluding Silence Suzuka herself—there were six participants.
Jim and Tonic was naturally an old acquaintance. She had already experienced firsthand the terror of Silence Suzuka's runaway tactics during the Dubai Turf. Yesterday, Shuta An had even accidentally encountered Trainer Francois Doumen outside the hotel. The latter's expression at the time had been extremely unpleasant.
After all, although Francois Doumen had heard rumors that Silence Suzuka might enter the Hong Kong Cup, he truly had not expected her participation to become reality. In his eyes, Silence Suzuka should have retired quietly within Japan.
Running Stag had achieved three stakes victories in America, but all on dirt surfaces. Her Trainer was British, and neither side had much interaction during the week.
Lear Spear had won this year's Prince of Wales's Stakes. However, aside from that race, her overall yearly performance was not particularly overwhelming. More importantly, the differences between Ascot's turf and Sha Tin's turf were enormous. Nobody could accurately predict how much strength she could display here.
Kabool represented Dubai, though technically she was considered a naturalized runner. When Shuta An first saw the registration details, he had genuinely believed Dubai had already developed the capability to cultivate internationally competitive middle-distance Uma Musume within just a few years.
Only after investigating further did he understand the full situation.
Kabool's Trainer, Sule, had been heavily recruited by the Dubai URA Association specifically to develop their overseas naturalized program. Interestingly enough, Shuta An had already indirectly crossed paths with him earlier this year—Sule had been the Trainer of Crown of Light during Mejiro Dober's Yorkshire Oaks expedition.
Dazzling Park had finished third in this year's Irish 1000 Guineas. However, unlike many top Irish runners, she was not trained by Aidan O'Brien, but by Bolger instead.
And finally—Sunline.
Although Australian Trainers held her in extremely high regard, Shuta An himself still remained somewhat skeptical about the overall level of Australia's middle-distance division.
"Now that Ann says that—" Silence Suzuka lowered her gaze slightly. "I feel like I really need to perform beyond my limits in order to meet your expectations."
Then she softly asked:
"Does Ann already have tactical plans for this race?"
"Anyway, this is Suzuka's retirement race."
The young man gently held her hand.
"How about this time, Suzuka simply runs exactly the way she wants? Follow your instincts. As long as you don't get injured, even if Suzuka runs the first 1000 meters in 57.4 seconds, I wouldn't be surprised."
If it had been the old Silence Suzuka, she would definitely have smiled brightly upon receiving such freedom.
But this was her final waltz within the Twinkle Series.
And because of that, the carrot-haired Uma Musume instead quietly shook her head.
"Never mind…"
She gently parted her red lips.
"I still want to be lazy this time."
Then she leaned her forehead softly against her lover's shoulder.
"So I'll leave everything to Ann."
—
At 5 PM, the draw ceremony officially began. Although the Hong Kong International Races are divided into four races based on distance, these four races also have different levels of prestige, which can be seen from the prize money.
After the handover, the Hong Kong URA Association, with support from the mainland, became more generous, increasing the prize money for all four international races this year.
The highest prize money is for the Hong Kong Cup, totaling HKD 20 million, followed by the Hong Kong Mile, totaling HKD 16 million, then the Hong Kong Vase, totaling HKD 14 million, and the lowest is the Hong Kong Sprint, totaling HKD 12 million.
"It's the race with the highest prize money, but the strength of the opponents is relatively the lowest,"
Shuta An secretly grumbled, then focused on waiting for the Hong Kong Cup draw, which was the main event.
This year's Hong Kong International Races used a computer for the live draw, with guests only responsible for pressing buttons to start and end. After the starting gates for the first three races were drawn, it was finally time for the Hong Kong Cup.
However, as before, before the draw began, an official from the Hong Kong URA Association went on stage to give a speech, talking about the significant meaning of this first Hong Kong International Races after the handover, how many overseas Uma Musume were attracted by the increased prize money for the Hong Kong Cup, and how many overseas media outlets purchased broadcasting rights.
Shuta An was almost falling asleep listening, but suddenly he perked up again because the person on stage mentioned the name of the Uma Musume sitting next to him—
"This year's Hong Kong Cup is also the retirement race for Silence Suzuka, the most anticipated middle-distance Uma Musume of the year. We are very pleased that Silence Suzuka's Trainer values our race so much, and we hope this year's Hong Kong Cup can leave Miss Silence Suzuka with beautiful memories."
"Unexpected, that they would mention that," Shuta An mumbled.
"After all, I've helped with a lot of publicity during my races in Hong Kong these past two years, haven't I?"
Silence Suzuka, however, could think of the reason. "Is this the Hong Kong URA Association returning the favor?"
"That should be it," Shuta An mused for a few seconds, agreeing with Silence Suzuka's guess. "I'll thank them when I accept interviews later."
For the Hong Kong Cup, Silence Suzuka drew starting gate number—"1."
"Wow!" Upon seeing this number, Shuta An excitedly stood up. "Fantastic!"
For Silence Suzuka, this was undoubtedly the best starting gate. If he hadn't known that it was difficult to manipulate such things manually, the young man would have thought the Hong Kong URA Association did it on purpose.
The Uma Musume herself was also very excited, "It's gate number 1, so there's even less excuse to lose the race."
"Indeed, there's no reason at all," Shuta An agreed. "With gate number 1, should we go for a big lead again this time?"
"58-second mark for a kilometer!" Silence Suzuka immediately proposed her idea. "This pace is sufficient at Sha Tin!"
"Absolutely no problem," Shuta An calculated, confirming that the Uma Musume's proposal was feasible.
After the draw ceremony, there was a dinner. As it was a cold buffet, Shuta An and Silence Suzuka temporarily separated to find food.
Just as Shuta An was happily finishing a tuna salad, someone called out to him.
Shuta An turned his head and raised an eyebrow, "Hello, Mr. Huang."
The young man was called by the Hong Kong URA Association official who had mentioned Silence Suzuka during his speech at the draw ceremony.
"I didn't expect Mr. Shuta to know me," he smiled. "Nice to meet you, my name is Huang Zhigang, and I am currently the chairman of the Hong Kong URA Association."
"Since I chose to come here to race, of course I should know Mr. Huang," Shuta An bowed slightly, then he asked, "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Has Mr. Shuta ever been troubled by how to evaluate an Uma Musume?" Huang Zhigang did not directly state his intention but instead asked a rhetorical question.
"If it's an Uma Musume I train, then no. If it's an outside Uma Musume, then yes, I have had trouble,"
Shuta An shrugged. "Europe can use Timeform ratings as a reference. But whether it's America or Asia, Timeform's scores are not accurate."
"That's right, after all, Timeform focuses on Europe," Huang Zhigang agreed, then changed the subject.
"So, Mr. Shuta also believes it's necessary to establish a global joint organization to score the performances of Uma Musume, right?"
"Eh?" Shuta An was stunned.
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