ENRICHMENT & RIGHT CHOICE
10th Feb 2019
After reaching 599 wins in Hong Kong on Thursday at the Lunar New Year meeting, Price Bloodstock only had a few days to wait to open the champagne for a new milestone when Enrichment threw down the gauntlet to his Derby rivals at Sha Tin on Sunday.
The four-year-old’s first Hong Kong victory made him assured of a run as a frontline Derby contender next month and the 600th winner for Price Bloodstock.
David Price tweeted soon after the victory: “Price Bloodstock 600 winners in Hong Kong, well done to the owner/trainer of Enrichment and the team on the ground in Aus. Outstanding work. Now lets see how quick we can get to 700.”
And he didn’t have to wait long to get going on that new project, either, with Right Choice taking the final race to become 601.
The win by John Size-trained Enrichment came in a race where the tempo was unusually strong and there was nowhere to hide and it showed off the gelding’s true staying capabilities and also showed the benefits of a quick back-up from his run just eight days prior.
“He was a little bit nervous behind the gates last week but was better today, even though the 2000m start is in front of the stands with lots of people over the fence. That’s an experience a lot of horse don’t have before a race and some don’t handle it well but he was fine,” Size said. “The tempo looked genuine, he enjoyed that and the fact that the speed was on probably helped him win. We have an option to run him again next week in the Classic Cup but we’ll see how he is at home and make a decision. He doesn’t need to run there.”
The path to 700 wins began with Right Choice in the final race as he took his record to 4 starts for 3 wins and a second and he again showed himself to have all the tools to keep winning, parking up just behind the speed for Silvestre de Sousa then responding generously when the Brazilian rider asked him to go in the straight.
“He is very professional and keeps progressing,” said trainer Frankie Lor.
Right Choice did a great job but he might have been a little lucky to win as Invincible Missile looked very unlucky behind him in third place – and he’s another Price Bloodstock winner waiting to happen shortly.