Champion sire Redoute’s Choice notched up his 82nd lifetime stakes winner when Packing Ok saw off late closers to claim the G3 Centenary Vase (1800m) at Sha Tin on Saturday.

The John Moore trained gelding became the first Hong Kong stakes winner for Arrowfield champion Redoute’s Choice.

Packing Ok was winning for the fifth time for owner Raymond Lee Man Chun.  He scored from Pure Champion while Flying Spur’s 6YO son Sapelli, already a Hong Kong G3 winner, finished third.

“He’s always shown a lot of promise from the first day he arrived,” winning rider Darren Beadman said.  “He always gave the feeling that he’d be a Group horse.”

Moore indicated he would confer with the Lee family about Packing Ok’s immediate campaign, but the G1 Hong Kong Gold Cup over 2000 metres on February 26 is a likely target.

Packing Ok has more than a genetic connection to Redoute’s Choice: he was also bred by his sire’s owner-breeder Muzaffar Yaseen, from the multiple stakeswinner Abbadena.  Packing Ok was purchased for $480,000 by Magus Equine from the Widden Stud draft at the 2008 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Packing Ok is the 10th stakeswinner worldwide for Redoute’s Choice in 2011-12, after Melbourne Spring Carnival Group winners King’s Rose, Rekindled Interest, Sister Madly and Galah, Dubai Group winner Musir, Sydney Group winner Master of Design, Adelaide stakeswinner War Ends, New Zealand colt Burgundy and exciting 2YO Mama’s Choice.

Abbadena, a daughter of Runyon (Sadler’s Wells), also has a 3YO full sister to Packing Ok, named Flame of Lanka, a winner in Adelaide this season for Yaseen.

Five yearlings by Redoute’s Choice will be offered at the 2012 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, among them fillies from Bianca (NZ) and Tango Fire in the Bellerive Stud draft.