Wellington emboldens Gibson, Japan’s sprinters prepare
A fast solo workout on Monday morning seems to have put Hong Kong’s top sprinter back on track for Sunday’s feature.

Wellington has galloped, the G1 Hong Kong Sprint is five days hence, and Richard Gibson has his game head on: the trainer’s clipped, succinct answers to delving questions, present a confident front.
“He galloped yesterday and all was good. We’re happy with him,” Gibson told Asian Racing Report.
Much has changed in a little over two weeks: Wellington was already Hong Kong’s top-rated sprinter, a triple Group 1 winner, but defeat in his lead-up race – sixth in the G2 Jockey Club Sprint – left a doubt hanging over his December participation and a cloud over the circuit’s diminished sprint division. A sacroiliac issue, a region connected to the pelvic bone, was the problem but Gibson believes that is behind him.
“We’re very lucky, we have a good team of professionals and terrific chiropractors here. He came out of the race sore and we’ve given him some treatment,” the Englishman said. “The chiropractor did some work on him and I’ve got no worries about him.”
A look at Wellington’s Monday morning gallop reveals why concern has given way to confidence.
“He went out of the gates; straight down the back,” Gibson said, with a slight wave of his hand in the general direction of Sha Tin’s back straight and the Shing Mun River beyond. “He went on his own. He always goes on his own. He goes too fast if he goes with another one.”
Wellington was timed at 48.6 seconds for 800 metres, quickening through the final 400 metres in 23.3 seconds. That ranks as the second-quickest gallop of the gelding’s life, slower only than the 46.8 seconds he clocked under Zac Purton, galloping down the back on July 1, 2021, when his closing 400-metre split was 23.2 seconds.