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00:00As important as International Day is on a global scale, arguably just as big to the locals in Hong Kong,
00:06is the classic series for the four-year-olds that culminates in the famed Hong Kong Derby worth almost three and a half million US dollars,
00:13but uncapped in its prestige to Hong Kong's major owners, participants and fans.
00:18The series itself starts with the Hong Kong classic mile run early in February.
00:22Here we sometimes see potential derby hopes for only the first or second time in their careers,
00:27as they're often imported gallopers who've had success as younger horses overseas
00:31and have been identified and purchased solely for the aim of competing in the classic series.
00:37The second leg, we go to the mile and an eighth of the Hong Kong Classic Cup run a month later in early March.
00:43No longer do we have those types competing that are likely ending up as more short course gallopers as their careers progress.
00:49We are now seeing the true derby prospects emerge.
00:53And it all culminates in the derby run three weeks after the cup over the true test of a mile and a quarter.
00:58First run in 1873 and run at Chartin since 1979.
01:02It wasn't until 1981 that it was restricted to purely four-year-olds.
01:06A look through the list of derby winners see some of the true greats of the Hong Kong turf.
01:10But as it stands today, only two horses have been able to claim all three legs of the classic series,
01:15the ill-fated Rapper Dragon in 2017,
01:18and the now legendary Golden 60, whose win in 2020 was just the start of things to come.