Size sets sights on Group success with Raging Blizzard
Master trainer John Size will look to close the 2025/26 Pattern Book on a high with victory in the final Group races of the season at Sha Tin on Sunday (21 June).
A G3 Premier Cup Handicap (1400m) headlines the latest ‘Summer Series’ race meeting, the 81st of 88 scheduled racedays.
Size, a 13-time Hong Kong Champion Trainer, is hoping to continue his typically strong finish to the season, which has delivered four wins, seven seconds and three thirds in the last five meetings.
Talented Raging Blizzard (NZ) (Per Incanto) has been one of the hard-luck stories of the season. The Per Incanto gelding, who will tackle the Premier Cup, has failed to win in 10 outings despite never finishing outside the top six and filling the runner-up spot on four occasions. His last run on 31 May was a creditable second in the G3 Sha Tin Vase Handicap (1200m), crossing the line a short head behind impressive favourite Patch Of Stars, to whom he gave 14lb.
“He’s been really great,” Size said of the six-year-old. “He’s so consistent and he’s so honest. He always puts in a good run. He deserves to win a decent race, but, unfortunately, he’s sometimes disadvantaged, and it’s a bit of a struggle for him to get home.”
Raging Blizzard breaks from stall two and will be ridden by a resurgent Brenton Avdulla, who has found some late-season form, saluting four times in the last four meetings. Although 1400m is not his preferred distance, Size believes his charge can still deliver that elusive win at this late stage of the campaign.
“He seems healthy and well,” Size said. “He continues to train on, even though he’s getting towards the end of the season. He still feels all right. His work has been good. So, hopefully, he’ll run another good race.
“He just needs a moderate pace where they don’t go too hard for him. 1400 (metres) is probably as far as he wants to go. He can get comfortable and he can spring home.”
Raging Blizzard, by Little Avondale Stud’s premier sire Per Incanto, was bred in New Zealand by Jamieson Park.
