No Bull, this is the big time
Harry Bull is likening his Hong Kong experience to being a kid and training with the All Blacks.
The bright lights of the iconic Sha Tin racecourse are far removed from the backblocks of Hunterville but on Sunday (7pm NZ time) the Bull family will take on the best the world has to offer. Their tough stayer Benzini will contest the Group I Longines Hong Kong Vase (2400m).
‘‘For a country boy from Hunterville where there’s no buildings higher than two stories, it’s pretty surreal to be in a place like this,’’ Bull said.
‘‘I feel like I’ve won a Weet-Bix competition and I’m training with the All Blacks.’’
Bull trains Benzini in partnership with his father Adrian but their training outfit at Hunterville, less than an hour’s drive inland from Whanganui, is a true family affair.
Adrian has stayed home to keep the farm running but mum Robyn is a part of a small group of family and friends in Hong Kong ready to take on the world after receiving an invite from The Hong Kong Jockey Club.
‘‘Just to be here is like a dream come true. It’s what I dreamed of doing when I was kid and it was the same for dad too. People over here compare it to being like the horse Olympics. There are horses here from all over the world, it’s literally the best of the best,’’ Bull said.
There is no doubting Sunday’s meeting is the big time and it is big bucks too. If Benzini can do the unthinkable and upset the field to win the race worth $16,500,000 Hong Kong Dollars – the equivalent to $2.9m in New Zealand currency – he will bank more than $1.7m (NZD).
To put that in context, in a hugely successful career that has seen Benzini win 11 races, he has earned $522,257 in stakes – $204,480 of which came in his Group II Brisbane Cup win back in June.
His last Group I race in New Zealand, the Livamol Classic, was contested for a stake of $250,000. Benzini, owned by Adrian Bull, is no stranger to Group I races but Sunday will easily be the toughest of his 42 starts. He will be an outsider against the likes of last year’s winner Highland Reel and Big Orange. The race is over Benzini’s best distance of 2400m and Bull is confident he is in a similar vein of form to when he won the Brisbane Cup. But it is impossible to understate the enormity of the challenge from barrier 11 in a field of 14 world class runners and in front of more than 80,000 punters on course.
Bull feels the draw is not is bad as it looks with 500m to the first corner and he expects many in the field to be easing back out of the gates.
The marathon 20 hour trip to get to Hong Kong,took its toll on the sevenyear-old but Bull said he was now fit.