It would be fair to say that today offers our many local racing enthusiasts a sumptuous feast of enjoyable sporting action both at home and abroad. Not only do we have 10 races on offer from Sha Tin, including the HKG3 Hong Kong Macau Trophy and the Association of Hong Kong Racing Journalists Challenge Cup, but ahead of this we will also shortly be simulcasting the Kewney Stakes and Newmarket Handicap from Flemington Racecourse in Australia. Then later this evening we shall be bringing you another seven simulcast races from the Super Saturday racenight at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
Previously staged as Super Thursday, the event has been scheduled as Super Saturday this year, which to a certain extent is more convenient for racing fans here in Hong Kong, falling as it does on the weekend.
I will be especially interested to watch this year’s Super Saturday programme, as two of the races, the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 and the Jebel Hatta, have been upgraded to Group 1 status for the first time. We will also see many top international runners in action tonight, including familiar names like Musir, Campanologist, Presvis and Dubawi Gold, as they will use the Super Saturday races as a lead-in for their main targets at the Dubai World Cup raceday on 31 March.
From a Hong Kong perspective, with several of our top horses like Ambitious Dragon, Xtension and California Memory likely to travel to Dubai for the World Cup meeting, tonight's simulcasts will offer us a useful chance to study the current form and condition of their possible challengers at the end of the month.
Personally, I think the runners owned by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed will be most in the spotlight at tonight's races, as his horses have shown great form and dominance in the Dubai Carnival races so far this season. The Sheikh, as always, has a strong hand of runners tonight, as at the declaration stage his different stables had more than 20 entries listed for tonight's seven races.
I shall be equally intrigued to see the competition between the Sheikh's long-standing first-choice jockey Frankie Dettori and two new members of the Godolphin team – UK-based Silvestre De Souza and France's Mickael Barzalona. Both are rising stars in their countries and it will be interesting to see how they fare in their partnership with Godolphin, ahead of the new European racing season.
Some of you might know that tomorrow morning, there will be still another entertaining and informative event to watch at Sha Tin, as we shall be hosting a breeze-up for 26 unraced two and three-year-olds that will be put up for auction at the 2012 Hong Kong International Sale next Saturday. In fact, these young horses have all galloped on the Sha Tin turf already last Wednesday, and I know that they made a good impression on some of our trainers who watched them perform.
Tomorrow our potential buyers will have the chance to study the movements and characters of these young horses in the breeze-up and see which lots they most fancy. I hope they will be pleased with what they see.
Getting back to the Hong Kong Macau Trophy, today's race is the first leg of the annual Interport series, which gives horses from Hong Kong and Macau the chance to compete on each other's racetracks. Since the series was established in 2004, Hong Kong and Macau stand all square in the overall results. Hong Kong runners have won six of the eight stagings of the Hong Kong Macau Trophy, but conversely Macau runners have triumphed in six of the eight Macau Hong Kong Trophies. So today's winner will give its representing city a slight advantage before the Macau leg to be held at Taipa Racecourse next month.
Macau runners receive a 15-pound reduction in this HKG3 event, which is not insignificant especially because Macau trainers and owners view this race as one of their season main targets to win and set their horses for this race, but this is not the same case for Hong Kong Owners.
Viva Pronto is likely to lead as he did in 2010 and he will be dangerous once he gets his way in front of the field, especially on the C+3 course which favours runners in the front. I think he will at least have a place chance. He may get company from Fulfil A Wish who has to overcome his draw in Gate 12, as well as Good Uncle who is in good form and has for me a place chance. Crown Witness should be well placed and if he does not let Viva Pronto to gain too much advantage in front, he will have a good chance to beat him. Noble Alpha should be well placed and is working very well. He has a tendency to hang out but is for me one of the best Hong Kong chances to win the race. The expected good to fast pace will give Majestic Falcon the chance to come from behind for a top-three finish.
In the Association of Hong Kong Racing Journalists Challenge Cup which run as Class 1 on the All Weather track over 1200m, the pace is expected to be good. Blaze King should lead from Gate 1 and should be joined by Final Answer and Horse Galore who is in great form. He is for me a win and place chance, especially because Me Tsui stable is in brilliant form. His main opponent is Dynamic Blitz who excels on the All Weather track and is long targeted for this race. An interesting outsider comes from Tsui's stable too and with his good draw City Power should get a good position in midfield and can run very strong last sectionals, which makes him a danger together with his light weight!
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