He boasts a veterinary record almost as long as his Hong Kong racing career, but 2024 Derby (2,000m) hero Massive Sovereign is close to making his latest comeback from injury.
Frankie Lor Fu-chuen is the latest trainer tasked with trying to extract the best out of the Irish import, who had surgery to both front fetlocks in December and a right hind tendon injury in January.
Massive Sovereign started his Hong Kong career in a blaze of glory for trainer Dennis Yip Chor-hong, winning his first two starts – including a barnstorming triumph in the city’s most prized race, the Derby.
However, he was struck down by a left hind fetlock injury at the end of 2024 that required surgery and was then moved on to the David Eustace stable.
The son of No Nay Never had three runs for Eustace, with his best performance a solid fourth to Sagacious Life in a Class Two over 1,600m last October, before his latest array of injuries.
“At this moment he looks OK. He has screws in both front and his left hind fetlocks. When he transferred to my stable, he had another injury, so he needed time to spell and recover,” Lor said of Massive Sovereign, who was given an official veterinary clearance last week.
“He’s had 10 or so gallops, so I’m still planning to maybe run him once before the season’s finished – July 12 in the Class One 1,600m. We need to have a look at how he’s going. Maybe I will trial a couple of times and if everything’s OK, he might run on that day.”
That same Class One race over the mile marked Massive Sovereign’s comeback last year from his first injury and he ran on well late for eighth behind Bundle Award.
Champion jockey Zac Purton, who booted home Massive Sovereign in the 2024 Derby, hopped on the six-year-old in his latest gallop last Saturday on the Sha Tin dirt.
“After the gallop he came back and I said ‘how is the horse?’ and he said ‘how many injuries for him?’,” Lor said.
“It’s just step by step. I will try to trial him this week or next week to see.”
Yiu joins elite club
The number 1,100 doesn’t scream major milestone but for Ricky Yiu Poon-fai, reaching that amount of wins in Hong Kong puts him among some of the city’s all-time great trainers.
After landing the first leg of a Sha Tin double with Chill Buddy on Sunday, Yiu joined John Moore (1,735), John Size (1,659), Tony Cruz (1,611) and Caspar Fownes (1,227) in the elite club.
A humble Yiu said longevity was the key to his success. “I’ve been training here for over 30 years, so for the period of time I’ve been a trainer, I can make it there. If I only had 20 years, I wouldn’t have made it,” he said.
However, there is much more to Yiu’s success than just longevity. The astute trainer has won most of Hong Kong’s biggest races with star gallopers such as Sacred Kingdom, Fairy King Prawn, Amber Sky and more recently Voyage Bubble, who became the first galloper in 31 years to win the Triple Crown.
The 2009-10 championship winner is also renowned as one of Hong Kong’s best travelling trainers, having bagged multiple overseas Group Ones, and is an exceptional judge of youngsters at yearling and breeze-up sales.
