And so to Meydan for a Dubai World Cup night featuring four Hong Kong horses.
Good luck to Southern Legend, Wishful Thinker, Gold Mount and Fight Hero as they fly the Hong Kong flag against star rivals on the world’s richest raceday.
Me Tsui reports that Fight Hero has settled in well ahead of the Golden Shaheen, while Caspar Fownes feels Southern Legend can get into the money against Japanese star Almond Eye in the Dubai Turf and Richard Gibson reports no problems with Wishful Thinker and Gold Mount ahead of the Al Quoz Sprint and the Dubai Gold Cup.
Optimism has to be guarded all things considered, but there have also been some notable newslines on the home front this week.
The reaction to our first Exhibition Raceday at Conghua continues to be encouraging and Wednesday’s Happy Valley meeting provided a perfect illustration of how our Mainland base can be a huge asset to Hong Kong horsemen.
Helene Charisma was a Group 1 winner in France but struggled badly for a long time when he moved here and even a great trainer like John Moore found it hard to find the key to him.
His losing run was in the mid-20s when he moved to Conghua late last year, but the different environment there clearly suits him extremely well and he now looks firmly back on track after a second impressive Valley success in the space of three weeks.
For me, the other significant story this week relates to the way the Jockey Club’s investment in young local riding talent is paying dividends.
Vincent Ho’s fine season continued at the Valley in midweek with another treble to remain clear fourth in the jockeys’ table on 36 winners, while Victor Wong partnered a sprint double which takes his career total in Hong Kong to 45 and therefore reduces his allowance from 7lb to 5lb.
Matthew Poon also going well on 28 winners and it’s well worth noting that, with two thirds of the season now behind us, Hong Kong riders currently occupy three of the top six places in the championship.
Homegrown riders have now ridden a combined total of 172 winners this season, which equates to nearly a third of all races run, and of course we have another interesting addition to the jockey ranks this weekend.
After partnering a hundred winners in Australia and New Zealand, 24-year-old apprentice Alfred Chan returns for his first day as a Hong Kong rider with six rides on the Sha Tin card.
He can rely on good guidance from his new boss Frankie Lor and history tells us that his 10lb allowance could prove a very valuable asset over the next few months.
Sunday’s Class 2 Tolo Harbour Handicap over 1400m at Sha Tin provides an early and interesting test of the value of a 10lb claim as Alfred partners the reliable King Opie in a race featuring a number of closely matched old rivals.
Encouraging heads the weights for John Moore and Derek Leung after recording his fourth win of the season over course and distance two weeks ago.
Tornado Twist, King Opie and Gold Win all performed very well to fill the frame that day, with Regency Bo Bo, Preciousship and South African G1 winner Lobo’s Legend among those further back.
Regency Bo Bo was ridden much more patiently than normal from stall 14 on that occasion but is very likely to go forward with Encouraging from an inside gate this time. The pace should be true as a result, with King Opie and Gold Win also set to race close up and Tornado Twist likely to be held up due to his tendency to start slowly.
Encouraging is in peak form and drawn to run another bold race in stall 3. However, King Opie is 19lb better off this time when his apprentice’s claim is taken into account.
He is clearly at least a place chance with Frankie Lor adding blinkers but removing his usual cheekpieces, while Tornado Twist will be suited by a strong gallop and is another with clear place credentials in what is a strong and open looking handicap.
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