Horse racing news: Joseph O’Brien upbeat about chances of Al Riffa and Galen in Hong Kong
Joseph O’Brien has never been a man to duck an international challenge as he prepares to take on three-time champion Romantic Warrior in the HK$40 million (approx. £3.8m) G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (1m2f/2000m) at Sha Tin on Sunday 14 December.
With two Melbourne Cups and a Breeders’ Cup success already unlocked during a training career which only began in 2016, O’Brien pitches the unheralded Galen into white-hot competition.
Horse racing news: Joseph O’Brien seeks success with Al Riffa in LONGINES Hong Kong Vase
Joseph O’Brien regards his HK$26 million (approx. £2.5m) G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (1m4f/2400m) contender Al Riffa as the horse who can help further his ambition to become a regular face at the major race meetings around the world in the coming years.
Al Riffa, a strapping five-year-old by Wootton Bassett, has already given a glimpse of that potential with a second to Godolphin’s globetrotter Rebel’s Romance at Royal Ascot in June and a much-debated seventh to Half Yours in the 2025 G1 Melbourne Cup.