HK International Day Next for Superstar Sebring Sprinter

Beaten only once in six starts, exciting Sebring three year-old gelding Aethero blitzed his older rivals to score a resounding win in the Group II Jockey Club Sprint Cup (1200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday leading home an Aussie bred trifecta.

Prepared by John Moore, Aethero led all the way and opened up to win by two lengths over Hot King Prawn (Denman) and Beat the Clock (Hinchinbrook) running a slick 1:07.58 seconds.

“Mama Mia!” cried winning rider Karis Teetan as he returned jubilant.

“It was unbelievable. The day I trialled him, he gave me the feel of a real champion. I rode Able Friend and this horse reminds me so much of him.”

Trainer John Moore had predicted a track record and he wasn’t far wrong: his rising star stopped the clock just eight hundredths of a second outside the great Sacred Kingdom’s mark set on this day 12 years ago.

“The sky is the limit. When Karis got off he said ‘he kicked like Able Friend!’” Moore said, referencing his past champion, who also a big chestnut and has a striking resemblance to Aethero, who is still only a spring three year-old.

“He was carrying a postage stamp. Hot King Prawn carried 10 pounds more than us and still closed off with no previous run this season,” Moore acknowledged.

“But, saying that, his run was great. He’s still only a three-year-old and he did everything right: he jumped away from the blocks and got across to the lead from gate nine there and he did it under his own steam.

“We’ll go to the Hong Kong Sprint now and it’s an international Group 1 so his work will be cut out, but you can’t ask anything more and he’ll still have a nice weight concession as a Southern Hemisphere three-year-old.”

A $575,000 Inglis Easter purchase from the Tyreel Stud draft for George Moore Bloodstock, Aethero is a half-brother to Group II winner Classique Legend and is the third winner from winning Encosta de Lago mare Pinocchio, a full sister to champion miler Racing to Win and half-sister to Group III winner Purrealist.

Aethero is the 56th stakes-winner for Widden Stud’s much missed Sebring, who died earlier this year.

Sebring will have big representation at yearlings sales in 2020 starting at the Gold Coast with 46 yearlings catalogued for Magic Millions.