Surprises are seldom far away in Hong Kong racing and Sunday at Sha Tin proved a case in point, with only one winning favourite from 11 races and Zac Purton and Joao Moreira managing just a single winner from 20 rides.
Zac has a cushion of four winners over Joao atop the jockeys’ table with 12 meetings left, while Tony Cruz keeps chipping away at Ricky Yiu’s lead in the trainers’ championship and is now just five behind after Ka Ying Star’s all-the-way win in the G3 Lion Rock Trophy.
It seems safe to expect more twists over the next six weeks but we need to take a prudent view in relation to further expansions of racecourse attendance and opening Off-Course Betting Branches and racecourses to offer account services on non-racedays.
We have been assessing the current public health risk situation very carefully. Hong Kong’s fight to minimize the spread of coronavirus has been impressive but there have been a number of new cases of local transmission recently and that suggests patience is the best policy.
Hong Kong has a passionate racing public and we fully understand their desire to come racing again as soon as possible. The Club shares that desire and we have been conducting tests on the e-Health declaration process so that our racecourses are ready to welcome more people back again as soon as the time is right.
However, for the moment we have to delay those further re-opening measures and we hope for the continued understanding of all racing fans as we move forward together at this important time.
Racing in the UK has resumed after a lengthy lockdown this week, while Ireland is on course to follow shortly, and with so much of the sport in lockdown, Hong Kong racing has enjoyed a notable boost in Commingling wagering.
Sunday’s remarkable commingling figure of HK$330 million was almost on a par with HKIR day. More importantly, it was up by almost 70 per cent on the corresponding fixture in 2019.
The next challenge is to consolidate that growth as global racing emerges from lockdown but recent events only confirm our long-held view that broadening the international appeal of racing is crucial to the sport’s future prosperity.
The interest in Monday’s Deauville simulcast – highlighted by an amazing eighth French 2000 Guineas success for Andre Fabre with the impressive Victor Ludorum – illustrated the power of international commingling yet again. This weekend promises exceptional action from Newmarket and Tokyo and we then move on to five days from Royal Ascot in a week where the World Pool could really start to come into its own.
Righteous Doctrine and Helene Charisma are the two French breds in the Class 2 Cochrane Handicap over 1800m, the seventh race of the night at Happy Valley on Wednesday and the final leg of a big Triple Trio. It is also an opportunity for four horses to cash in on the Club’s HK$1 million High Achievement Bonus before time runs out on 15 July.
Righteous Doctrine has won three of his last four races and is aiming for a racing rarity of wins on all three Hong Kong tracks in the span of two months. He won on the AWT in April and won his most recent turf start at Sha Tin last month. Now he makes his second appearance at Happy Valley.
Super Oasis, Columbus County, Reliable Team and Solar Wai Wai have a different objective as they take aim at the High Achievement Bonus for horses rated 80 or above who enjoy success for the first time in Class 2 or above. Righteous Doctrine denied Super Oasis the bonus in a similar race at Sha Tin over two weeks ago when he rallied to win by a neck. It was the first start in two months for Super Oasis and he looked a certainty inside the final furlong before coming up short on his debut for Ricky Yiu.
The four-year-olds in this race who are bonus eligible are all in with a chance. Super Oasis is in top form and will get a soft run in the box seat behind Reliable Team, who looks the probable leader with the addition of blinkers. Columbus County has been freshened up for his first start at Happy Valley and it is interesting that Zac Purton takes the ride given that he partnered Super Oasis last time.
I make Super Oasis a win and place chance with Antoine Hamelin aboard for the first time as he has the benefit of recent race fitness and will get the run of the race. Reliable Team is a three-time winner at Happy Valley and is a place chance along with Solar Wai Wai, a victim of a very tough trip on his last start. Helena Baby showed big improvement in his last start at odds of 143-1 and will be closing ground late as a place chance.
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