Presvis supplemented for feature Hong Kong race

Luca Cumani’s classy globetrotter Presvis has been supplemented for the prestigious Group 1 BMW Champions Mile at Sha Tin in Hong Kong on April 25 where he will bid to follow up his recent success at Meydan when landing the hugely valuable Dubai Duty Free on March 26, writes Elliot Slater.

Presvis has been a tremendous flag bearer for the Cumani yard in recent seasons and his impressive win in Dubai when cutting down River Jetez well inside the final furlong to land the astonishing £1.923 million first prize took his career winnings so far to a remarkable £4.28 million for the gelded son off Sakhee. The best horse racing odds suggest he can improve on this figure further still.

Cumani had originally intended sending Presvis to Hong Kong for the QEII Cup over 10 furlongs, a race he memorably won in 2009 when beating local star Viva Pataca, before returning last year to finish fifth in the same event. A specialist at nine furlongs, the seven-year-old is to be dropped back to a mile for the first time since his three-year-old days mainly due to the fact that the QEII Cup clashes with the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket and would mean that Cumani would be without the services of former champion jockey Ryan Moore, a jockey who has struck up a special relationship with Presvis in recent seasons.

Although he hasn’t raced over a mile for four years, Cumani believes that the evidence of his recent races suggests that Presvis has plenty of speed for the shorter trip and in making the decision to drop back in trip the Italian-born trainer has reckoned that having Moore in the saddle is the singularly most important factor in the equation.

Presvis may well be joined by anther British-trained runner with Barry Hill seriously thinking of sending the smart Red Clubs to the former British colony in search of a Group 1 success. Kerry Zangara