At Sha Tin on New Year's Day under Andrea Atzeni Taj Dragon put in a further claim for naming rights for a 1400m race.

There were eight runners in the race and still there were traffic problems for some of the runners, where Alex Badel on Healthy Happy earned the displeasure of the stewards as he was judged to have caused significant interference to both California Spangles and Red Lion.

Healthy Happy finished second and Beauty Joy third.

Hugh Bowman on California Spangles said that the horse was not responding in the same way that he had in training but the stewards still thought he should have tried harder and dished out a fine for the ride.

Zac Purton and J Mac – who was finishing off his Hong Kong visit – both rode trebles.