Crown Hamseong wired the field to walk off with the Segye Ilbo Trophy (1200M KOR-Listed) at Seoul Racecourse on Sunday afternoon. The four-year-old filly scored a first Stakes win for herself and in the process a maiden Korean Principal race win for jockey CC Wong.

It had been a day for pacesetters with all prior winners on the card having led practically from gate to wire and there was accordingly a cavalry charge to get the coveted leading position after the short run heading into the turn from the six-furlong start. Vincero Cavallo, Naol Sniper, Something Lost, Yeonggwangui World and Saenae Town all tried, but coming out of gate two, CC and Crown Hamseong were too quick for them all.

Opening up a lead of three-lengths into the home straight, Crown Hamseong made the closing stages a procession as the other front-runners fell away. Daemangui Gil and Speed Young would eventually emerge from the rear to get closest, albeit a full two-lengths back on the line. Crown Hamseong returned as the 9.9 fifth favourite in the local win pool.

It was perhaps a race too far for Vincero Cavallo, who showed close to the pace early, but ran out of petrol equally quickly and finished well down the field. The pre-race favourite had run every month since his 6^th place in the Korea Sprint and it showed.

As for Speed Young, giving the prevailing track conditions were evidently favouring front-runners, it was always going to be a hard ask given his racing style and widest gate. Under a sensible Kim Hye-sun ride, he perhaps did well to run 3^rd.

Veteran Daemangui Gil ran a super race to run 2^nd, Kim Tae-hui threading her way through the field late to get closest to the winner. It was a pick-up ride for Kim after scheduled jockey Jung Do-yun suffered a broken shoulder in a fall at Busan on Friday. Jung is expected to be out for several months.

Crown Hamseong [Freedom Child – Choegoya Choego (by Menifee)] is a four-year-old filly who was purchased by her owner Hwang Eui-young for 30 Million Won as a yearling in 2022. Trained by Lee Gwan-ho, she came into the race boasting seven wins from ten starts, up to class 1 level and a mile. She skipped all three legs of the Triple Tiara series last year. She could be very interesting in this year’s Queens’ Tour.

For jockey CC “Jimmy” Wong, it was a 43^rd win in Korea and his first in a Listed or Graded Stakes. After an initial very successful stint in the country early in 2024, he returned to Singapore to see out the final days of racing in the Lion City but returned in late autumn and is gradually picking up from where he left off.

CC Wong is part of a very strong visiting jockey group at Seoul that also includes Ruan Maia, Kozzi Asano and Harry Kasim, as well as long-time Korea based multiple Group winner Johan Victoire and former Champion Apprentice in Turkey, Furkan Yuksel.

Next weekend, attention turns to the three-year-old crop with Triple Crown Classic trials at both Seoul and Busan.