Hong Kong's Champions Day at Sha Tin was overshadowed by tragedy with the death of Japan's Triple Tiara winner of 2023, Liberty Island (Jpn). The five-year-old daughter of Duramente (Jpn) went amiss after some scrimmaging in the home straight during the G1 FWD QEII Cup, which was won by her compatriot and fellow Classic winner Tastiera (Jpn) (Satono Crown {Jpn}).
Trained by Mitsu Nakauchida for Sunday Racing, Liberty Island followed up her Fillies' Triple Crown success by finishing second to Equinox (Jpn) in the G1 Japan Cup, which was rated the best race of 2023 in the Longines World Rankings.
Though winless since her Classic season, she had also run some good races in defeat, including when finishing runner-up to Romantic Warrior (Ire) in the G1 Hong Kong Cup last December, and third in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic of 2024. Liberty Island was bred by Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Racing from the dual Australian Group 1 winner Yankee Rose (Aus) (All American {Aus}).
Following confirmation that Liberty Island had been euthanised after being pulled up lame by jockey Yuga Kawada, Hong Kong Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said when interviewed on Luck On Sunday, “I am glad that people bring their horses here, and being a horse owner myself, you know when you have an incident like this and you lose a [treble] Classic winner it is something which is very emotional. I have talked to our Japanese friends and it is going to take some time for them to overcome this.”
Nakauchida was represented by two runners in the race with the other, Prognosis (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), filling the runner-up spot for the third year in succession.
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