{"id":442599,"date":"2025-09-22T05:53:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T05:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/442599\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T05:53:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T05:53:15","slug":"matthew-poon-to-ride-voyage-bubble-place-of-james-mcdonald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/442599\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Poon to ride Voyage Bubble place of James McDonald"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Poon has been handed the plum ride on Voyage Bubble in next month\u2019s Sha Tin Trophy after Ricky Yiu confirmed his stablestar\u2019s regular partner, James McDonald, will not be available for the Group 2 contest over a mile.<\/p>\n

Poon, who has spent plenty of mornings keeping the saddle warm for McDonald in Voyage Bubble\u2019s trackwork and barrier trials, has been rewarded by Yiu and the Sunshine And Moonlight Syndicate with the ride aboard last season\u2019s Triple Crown winner for his seasonal reappearance on October 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatthew has done a lot of work with him and we\u2019ve given him the ride,\u201d Yiu told Idol Horse. \u201cHe\u2019s trialled him a lot and we thought it was fair to give it to him and the owners are pleased for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames won\u2019t be here on the day and it\u2019s nice to support the local boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonald is likely to ride a leading contender in the $20 million G1 The Everest at Randwick a day earlier \u2013 at this stage poised to choose between star Chris Waller-trained mares Joliestar and Lady Shenandoah \u2013 as part of a busy spring for Australia\u2019s leading rider. He will return to Hong Kong on a short term stint from November 12 through to December 23.<\/p>\n

Voyage Bubble enjoyed a remarkable 2024-25 campaign, becoming the first horse in over 30 years to sweep Hong Kong\u2019s Triple Crown thanks to his wins in the G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m), G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) and G1 Champions & Chater Cup (2400m).<\/p>\n

With five Group 1 victories under his belt, Yiu\u2019s seven-year-old will step out in the Sha Tin Trophy under top weight of 135 pounds before looking ahead to November\u2019s G2 Jockey Club Mile and December\u2019s G1 Hong Kong Mile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to it,\u201d said Poon, who will look to secure his second career Group Two win on October 19. \u201cHe\u2019s a super horse and I\u2019m glad to get on him in a race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very thankful to the owners and Ricky. I know the horse well because I\u2019ve ridden him a lot before, so hopefully we can give them a good result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yiu also confirmed that Voyage Bubble was in fine fettle ahead of his reappearance. The gelding enjoyed a summer up at the Hong Kong Jockey Club\u2019s mainland facility in Conghua and returned to Sha Tin on September 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing really well,\u201d Yiu said. \u201cHe trialled well last time at Conghua and he\u2019ll trial once more before the Sha Tin Trophy. It will be good to get him back out there and we\u2019ll look ahead at the usual races over a mile before the new year.\u201d \u220e<\/p>\n

\"Hong<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\u201cPositivity\u201d, \u201cPressure\u201d and \u201cPatience\u201d: The Rebirth Of Matthew Poon<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

Voyage Bubble Joins Hong Kong Greats With Triple Crown Sweep<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Michael Cox<\/p>\n

\u2018Big Bum\u2019, Great Swimmer: The Historic Voyage Of Hong Kong\u2019s Unheralded Hero\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Poon has been handed the plum ride on Voyage Bubble in next month\u2019s Sha Tin Trophy after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[134144,149610,1071,149611,79,16,15,149612],"class_list":{"0":"post-442599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-james-mcdonald","9":"tag-matthew-poon","10":"tag-racing","11":"tag-ricky-yiu","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-voyage-bubble"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115246399987948923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}