If you've read my blogs over the last few weeks you'll notice I've talked a lot about the benefits of sports, not only from the health perspective but also in terms of how it can create positive values of leadership and teamwork. The key is to make sport and exercise a lifelong habit. This is why the Club, working with the Physical Fitness Association of Hong Kong, China, has launched the Jockey Club Keep-Fit Formula for Children programme. Targeting children aged 3 to 9, the aim is to make school life more fun by combining learning, exercise and play into their daily classes. Around 19,000 children are taking part in this pilot project, and we have great hopes it will eventually enable all our young children to develop habits of exercise that last a lifetime. Perhaps too we'll discover some sporting stars of the future!
Blazing Speed took the last G1 event in our current racing season with his success in the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup, a race dating to the latter part of the 19th century. In contrast we will welcome the newbie of our pattern programme tomorrow, the inaugural edition of the HKG3 Lion Rock Trophy at Sha Tin.
It has been our intention to enhance the season ending pattern race programme with the addition of such a race. It appears to be a much embraced move for connections too, as the field of the race included several G1-level performers and group race winners, also two rising stars in Rapper Dragon and Helene Paragon who showed plenty of promise in their recent runs.
At a rating of 107, Rapper Dragon is currently the highest-rated three-year-old in Hong Kong. Over the past few years, we have had only two locally-trained three-year-olds succeeded at pattern level here, namely Peniaphobia in the G2 Jockey Club Sprint in 2014 and Lucky Nine in the HKG3 National Day Cup in 2010. These two horses attained elite status and I will be interested to see if Rapper Dragon can emulate their footprints tomorrow.
The top three-year-olds in Japan will also be in action as when they contest in the Japanese classic, the G1 Japanese Derby at Tokyo Racecourse. The recent international successes of A Shin Hikari, Maurice and Real Steel have brought huge global attention on Japanese racing and we will get the chance to see who the next young star might be. You can capture all action through our live simulcast during races at Sha Tin. It would also be a good prelude before we are to see how Contentment fares against Maurice (again) and Real Steel in the Yasuda Kinen next week.
As for our featured event of the weekend, the Lion Rock Trophy (Handicap), it will be run over 1,600m of the A+3 course. There has certainly been some rain around in the past few days and we are in the season where a pop-up storm could impact the going. Regardless, Beauty Flame is the very likely leader and should be all by himself up front for Matthew Chadwick. Rewarding Hero and Top Act might be next, but potentially well behind Beauty Flame. Dundonnell has a better draw and should also go forward. Rapper Dragon will likely settle midfield and on the rail with Romantic Touch doing the same, while Helene Paragon will potentially be wide, but also well off the pace. Beauty Only and Gun Pit are likely to be near the tail of the field in the early going.
This is a classy group which combines both established runners and quality up-and-comers, and all seem to be going well in their trackwork. Rapper Dragon could continue his ascent at his young age with a win here, but faces the toughest field of his career while stablemate Helene Paragon was wildly impressive in his last success. Rapper Dragon sat last in a field of six where three horses fought through the early pace and Joao Moreira easily took advantage of the fiery pace. I don't think the same setup will occur in this race, and give a slight win edge to Helene Paragon may be showing some more versatility at this stage in his career. That said, there is plenty of upside to Rapper Dragon who will be well supported. Beauty Flame has been very competitive in tougher races and is a strong placing chance, and could be a win chance if the pace is very slow.
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