A new year brings fresh challenges and this weekend provides a chance for Hong Kong racing to show off some of our brightest stars to the racing world.
We have a special Sunday in store at Sha Tin but first it’s worth revisiting a couple of themes from Wednesday’s Happy Valley meeting.
It was another very good night for runners trained at Conghua, with Clear Choice scoring for Danny Shum after a month in Mainland China and Gamechangers and Waldorf completing a Conghua quinella later in the evening.
A couple of other Conghua horses were beaten in photo finishes and close calls were very much the order of the night, with six of the eight races won by a neck or less.
Remarkably, the combined winning distances between first and second for the entire card came in at around two and a half lengths – the equivalent of a under half a second for eight races.
It’s hard to think of a major racecourse anywhere in the world that provides so many dramatic finishes and that is why the Valley will always play a vital role in Hong Kong racing.
A photo finish seems unlikely if Beauty Generation carries his best form into Sunday’s Stewards’ Cup.
It’s very exciting to see our Horse of the Year up against a high-class old rival in Pakistan Star and a very promising new challenger in Conte, while the latest clash between Mr Stunning, D B Pin and Beat The Clock in the Centenary Sprint Cup is a world-class 1200m contest and we have some highly promising four-year-olds on view both early and late on the card.
The G1 Stewards’ Cup and G1 Centenary Sprint Cup are deep in quality despite small fields.
In the one mile Stewards’ Cup, Beauty Generation comes into the race having won his last five starts and his 127 international rating is the highest of any miler worldwide.
The improvement this horse has shown over the past year is remarkable. Last year, he finished seventh in the Stewards’ Cup as fourth choice in the betting. This time, he will be a very short-priced favourite and his morning trackwork suggests he has maintained the form which earned him a three-length win in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile last month.
Conte is the new kid on the block. He has won seven of nine races and though his international rating is only 106, this will be his first opportunity to show his ability at Group 1 level.
This race is run at level weights and it will be very interesting to see how Conte stacks up. He is a big horse at over 1300lbs and he is improving.
Beauty Generation will lead and, as he can run very strong sectionals on his own, I think the pace will be genuine.
Conte will keep him honest and is a solid place chance but Beauty Generation is exceptional and unless this develops into a sprint finish he is very much the one to beat.
It appears a difficult task for Pakistan Star as he turns back in trip from 2400m to a mile. Southern Legend has a good record over course and distance. He will be positioned midfield, about three lengths off the pace, and is a place chance.
In the Centenary Sprint Cup, the consistency of the top three horses is incredible. Mr Stunning has been in the Quinella in 17 of 22 starts with 11 wins. D B Pin has been in the Quinella in 12 of 16 starts and Beat The Clock has never finished out of the top 3 in 17 career starts.
They are all PPGs and they ran 1-2-3 in the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint last month with Little Giant finishing fourth. So, in many ways, this is shaping up as a rematch of the best performers on HKIR day.
The pace will be good to slow for this class of horse and I expect Styling City to stride forward and take up the running with Mr Stunning. D B Pin, Beat The Clock and Little Giant will be tightly bunched and it will be a tactical race.
Beat The Clock is working well and is a win and place chance as he makes his third start of the season. He will need to be at his best but should get every chance from his good draw. I do expect him to be closer to the pace than usual.
Mr Stunning is in top form and will be a tough horse to go past with this pace scenario. He almost never runs a bad race and is a solid place chance. Little Giant showed that he belongs in this elite group with a good run last month and is also a place chance along with D B Pin.
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