It started fantastically with the amazing Ka Ying Rising.

Ka Ying Rising romped away with the Chairman's Sprint prize adding another win to his awesome tally and will now have a well-deserved rest and head to Sydney for the Everest in October and there doesn't appear to be too many rivals out there.  He beat Satono Reve by a comfortable 2 ¼ lengths with Helios Express a neck away third, Purton stating after that his horse didn't even change his legs.

There was an upset in the Mile when Hugh Bowman got the John Size trained Red Lion over the line just ahead of Voyage Bubble.  It was lovely to see the Arculis there as they have a share in his ownership hence the "red" which comes into the name of all their horses.  We've liked him too as he reminds us of an English friend who said his address was the Lower Bar of the Red Lion Hotel – he even had that as his address on his business cards.  There was a lengthy inquiry and then a protest from J Mac who had been on Voyage Bubble which was finally over-ruled and Red Lion at 90/1 declared the winner.

The QEII Cup was a bitter-sweet even – sweet for the win of Tastiera and the great ride from Damian Lane, another second for Prognosis and the third for the Bahraini-trained Calif given a great ride along the rails by Adrie de Vries and then the bitter part. 

The beautiful mare Liberty Island "went amiss" at around the 200m mark and suffered a fatal injury.  She was a very special horse whom we had followed since her earliest races as she was the daughter of a very good Aussie mare in Yankee Rose.  Yankee Rose had two G1 wins to her name – one in record time – and two seconds one of which was to Winx in the Cox Plate.  Liberty Island's sire was Duramente, who produced many top liners before his untimely departure.  She won the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies as a 2yo, the first of her G1s and then went on to win the Triple Tiara as a 3yo. 

She had a great fighting spirit and as her jockey-partner and friend Yuga Kawada said in a moving tribute to her: "She gave it her all until the very end. She endured without falling and protected me until the last. Even after she stopped, she acted calmly and remained strong. She was too strong and smart. Thank you very much to the Hong Kong Jockey Club for responding quickly and for hugging her."