As I had thought, trainer Caspar Fownes had a good evening at the Sha Tin race meeting on Wednesday, as he notched a winning double thanks to Good Times Roll and Gun Pit. The results placed him just a single win behind championship leader John Size, who also had a winner that evening with Silly Buddies, although as things stand, if the scores are tied John would still be champion as he has had more second place-getters. Tony Cruz remains in third place, a further five wins behind Caspar with three meetings to go.
The current competition for the championship reminds me of last season when John and Tony were engaged in a three-way tussle with Dennis Yip for the title of Champion Trainer going into the final few meetings. You will no doubt recall that Dennis was the victor following that exhilarating climax which went right down to the last race of the season. Tony and John were disappointed last year and both former champions will still be hoping to regain the crown this time around. In the meantime, should Caspar be crowned Champion Trainer for the third time it would give a great boost to him and his family at a time when his father and former trainer Lawrie Fownes is battling against cancer.
In fact John, Caspar and Tony have won a total of 10 trainers’ premierships between them in the past 12 seasons. With 32 races still to be run in the three remaining race meetings there is still all to play for. Tony has his work cut out to close the gap but things are very tight between John and Caspar - it really could go either way. It will be interesting to see how each trainer’s runners perform this afternoon as John has contenders in five races, Tony is represented in seven contests and Caspar has taken an all-out approach with runners in all 10 races.
Among the races I will be paying attention to the Hong Kong Riding For The Disabled Association Cup. It’s a Class 3 event over 1000m and run as Race 7. There are plenty of speedsters in the race and the pressure they put on each other as they vie for the best position at or near the outside rail, should generate a good-to-fast pace. Dane Patrol from gate 14 should make good use of his draw to take up his usual leading role on the grandstand side, with Sugar who has to overcome his draw in gate 4 and Fun 'N’ Games in gate 1. Disciples Twelve is from the in-form stable of Caspar Fownes. With his good draw of 11, he is my favourite selection, with Sugar from the Andreas Schutz stable who will be the trainer’s best chance to achieve the 15 winners criteria today. Real Treat and Rocket Let Win are the other chances in the race, as well as with Art Of Success – who will wear blinkers for the first time – should help.
As for the World Cup, I’m sure you are all as gripped by the competition as I am. The final group matches were played in the early hours of Friday and the 16 teams for the knock-out stage have all been confirmed. Hopefully your favourite teams have proceeded to the next stage - so far it has been a tournament with a few surprises and I imagine there will be one or two more along the way.
This World Cup has a total of 12 host cities. With Brazil being such a big country, it meant most teams had to travel between different states for their group matches, sometimes requiring a flight of several hours. In my view, that kind of schedule can be energy-sapping and some players might struggle to acclimatise to the new location environment quickly. The climate in some locations could also help to explain the disappointing performance of some of the European teams who may not have coped with venues that are hotter and far more humid than they are used to. A good example of that would be the four group matches staged in the city of Manaus, located in the centre of the Amazon region. Among the five European teams to have played there, only Switzerland proceeded to the knock-out stage, but other high profile outfits such as England, Italy, Portugal and Croatia were all eliminated. Having said that, the good news for all teams is that that they won’t need to play in the Amazon region any more, as no more match have been arranged in Manaus.
However my home team Germany still has a long journey for their next fixture. They played their first three matches mainly in the eastern part of the country, but now travel to the southeastern city of Porto Alegre for their Round of 16 match against Algeria, ahead of the chance to face France or Nigeria in the quarter-finals. Personally I think Germany put up a fair performance in their 1-0 win against the USA in their last group match on Thursday. They dominated the possession and tempo of the match but – perhaps affected by the rainy conditions – they lacked invention and a real cutting edge in attack, although they were always aware that even a draw would see them top the group. On the other side, the USA had two very good chances to level the score in stoppage time.
Anyway, in the knock-out stage there will be no margin for error. It’s time for Germany to step up their play in their next match, which is in the early hours of next Tuesday. Before then, four South American teams will be bidding to cement their places in the quarterfinals tonight, with Brazil taking on Chile, and Colombia going head-to-head with Uruguay. Chile is a solid outfit and I think they will test Brazil, but I’m sure many of you will be interested to watch the Uruguay game. I am keen to see how they perform without their key striker Luis Suarez after he was handed a lengthy and thoroughly deserved suspension for his extraordinary act of biting an Italian player in Uruguay’s final Group match. Let’s hope the rest of the tournament is played in a more sporting manner and may the best teams progress to the next stage.
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