With only 21 meetings left in the 2021/22 season, and only small margins separating the leading players, there is everything to play for in the battle for in Hong Kong’s three major training and riding competitions.
Frankie Lor leads his former mentor John Size 68-65 in the trainers’ championship, having saddled four winners from his past 10 starters to surpass his personal best of 65 winners in a season. Frankie had a big day on Sunday with a treble through Massive Action, Free Foal and Sakewin.
Frankie knows only too well that John can never be under-estimated and there are certain to be more twists and turns as the season end nears.
The same scenario is likely to apply to Joao Moreira and Zac Purton. Both of these four-time champions have held sizeable leads this season but the margin currently stands at two wins – Joao has the upper hand with a 111-109 edge after both riders posted trebles at Sha Tin on Sunday.
Their rivalry this campaign is reminiscent of 2017/18 when Joao led until late in the term before Zac clinched the title, 134-136.
With three consecutive wins in the Tony Cruz Award for the best-performed home-grown jockey, Vincent Ho is again strongly in contention with 37 wins so far this season, but Matthew Chadwick’s effort to ride at least one winner at seven of the past eight meetings has left him 41 wins to date.
After contending with injury for much of the three past seasons, Matthew’s effort to turn around his fortunes has been one of the highlights of a season where Vincent, Derek Leung (28) and Matthew Poon (27) have also been prominent.
At Sha Tin on Wednesday night, the Yuen Long Handicap is a Class 2 with an extended rating band of 105-80 and will be run over 1650 metres on the dirt track. The race will be run over a good to fast tempo with a number of runners showing a forward pattern, most notably Kings Shield who will be ridden by Vincent Ho.
Kings Shield will face pace pressure from the outside with Buddies using his natural speed to cross from the outside barrier under Luke Ferraris. Chancheng Prince has been freshened up at Conghua and signalled his sharpness with an impressive trial. He is in with a light weight and jockey Matthew Poon will need to cross over to secure a prominent position without getting caught wide. I look for an improved effort from Chancheng Prince and make him a place chance.
Beauty Fit is up in grade after a promising run last month over the track and distance. He will benefit from the fast pace and will be ridden by Harry Bentley under a light weight. I make him a win and place chance.
Stablemate Red Desert returns to his preferred surface and is proven over the trip. He will be closing ground with Vagner Borges and is a place chance along with The Rock with Joao Moreira.
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