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Mogul and Royal Julius will be in action at the Hong Kong International Meeting.
The Hong Kong International Meeting has been a good 'hunting-ground' for French horses since its inception in the 1990's. France sits third behind Hong Kong and Japan in the tally of feature race winners with two victors in the Hong Kong Cup (2000m) [Jim and Tonic (1999) and Pride (2006)] and nine in the Hong Kong Vase (2400m). French jockey Oliver Peslier has the title as the most winning jockey in the race with four victories.
In most years' international horses' dominant both the size of the G1 Hong Kong Vase field and the result but this year only two international horses will contest the race – Mogul, winner of the G1 Grand Prix de Paris (2400m) at Longchamp and is based in Ireland and the French trained 'Globe-Trotter' Royal Julius.
Mogul is trained by Aidan O'Brien in Ireland. He prepared Highland Reel for two victories in the race in 2015 and 2017. Three-year-old Mogul is the winner of the only 2400m G1 race restricted to the European three-year-old Classic generation race in France – the Grand Prix de Paris. Normally run in July, but with the changes to the calendar this year the Group One was run in place of the G2 Prix Niel, the traditional three-year-old trial race for the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Mogul defeated the 'Arc' runner-up In Swoop by two and a half lengths. Mogul has subsequently had one further race in the G1 Breeders Cup on Turf (2400m) at Keeneland (USA) and was beaten three lengths by dual G1 French winner Tarnawa this past autumn.
Royal Julius comes into this race with a place chance. Winner of six of thirty-nine starts, his last victory was in the inaugural running of the Bahrain International Trophy (2000m) in November 2019. His best performance this year was finishing third in the G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly (2500m) at Deauville at the end of May and was beaten five lengths by subsequent G1 Grand Prix de St-Cloud victor Way To Paris (who also raced in the recent G1 Japan Cup). He also finished close-up second in Italy in the G2 Gran Premio di Milano (2000m) in September.
