Happy Lucky Dragon Win | Let bygones be bygones and make Champions Mile a Doncaster double

Racing New South Wales’ revamped autumn carnival “The Championships” has been derided by some for its lack of overseas interest – and the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Champions Mile has had its critics, too. But a little bit of collaboration between the two once-warring jurisdictions could go a long way to help both turn around what is looking like lacklustre international involvement in their upcoming rich mile features.

To say there’s a little tension between the men at the top of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Racing NSW  – Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges and Peter V’Landys – is probably understating it, even if the matter of jockey Chris Munce being allowed to ride in Australia while still banned elsewhere was more than five years ago.

There was also Racing NSW breaching an Asian Racing Conference protocol by taking on a sponsor, leading to Engelbrecht-Bresges resigning as chairman of the Asian Racing Federation, with the German citing an inability to work with V’Landys. The only real manifestation of the whole brouhaha, other than nasty letters and chest pounding, was that the Jockey Club stopped shopping at Sydney’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sales for a time, returning last year.

We aren’t here to dig up any of that controversy and pick over it – plenty has been written – but rather to suggest it be left behind when it comes time to talk racing and the two jurisdictions work together to help two races worthy of the boost. Both are in desperate need of more quality international runners.

Quite frankly, it seems the Champions Mile is dying a slow death, losing relevance quicker than Vanilla Ice did post-Ice Ice Baby. It is without a sponsor for this year and, even though it is still worth HK$12 million, it still feels like a comedown after the richer HK$14 million Audermars Piguet QEII Cup seven days earlier.

The Champions Mile only attracted two overseas entrants last year, and has oscillated between two and four over the past five years. The race had a worthy winner in Dan Excel last year but as an event it lacks the excitement top-class visitors bring.