Despite a heavy downpour midway into our race meeting at Sha Tin on Sunday, the enthusiasm of thousands of racing fans on course could not be dampened and we had a very successful day race finale. It was great to see those fans cheer for their heroes at the Champion Awards presentations held throughout the day when Military Attack was by far the biggest winner, as like Ambitious Dragon in 2010/11, he scooped three top honours – Horse of the Year, Most Popular Horse and Champion Middle Distance Horse.
Douglas Whyte and Dicky Lui received their riding awards as champion jockey and champion apprentice, and all the connections of our champion horses were naturally pleased with the outcomes; but two awards remain undecided, the first being Most Improved Horse of the Year. After his victory on Sunday, Champion Griffin All You Wish surpassed Solar Great to become the current front-runner for that award, but he has to wait to see how another contender, Bullish Friend, fares tonight. Bullish Friend must deliver an impressive win in tonight’s race to stand any chance of eliminating the deficit.
Of course the overriding focus of the entire evening will be the exciting finish to the trainers’ championship. Dennis Yip, Tony Cruz and John Size each scored a winner early in Sunday’s races only for Dennis’s trainee All You Wish to etch a decisive victory in the last race of the day. That enabled his handler to gain some breathing space with a two-race leading margin over Tony.
It’s only been a couple of years since we last saw such an interesting competition for the trainer’s championship. The last time in 2010/11 was the duel between Tony and John Moore. But this season it’s a three-party affair as we go into the last race meeting, and the battle could even last until the season’s very last race. I don’t think anyone could have written a better script. It’s a fascinating end to the season and the trainers’ battle just now shows what Hong Kong racing is all about. It’s incredibly competitive and these few trainers competing for the top honour this year are showing that their professionalism and hunger to win is as strong as at any point throughout the season.
These three trainers will be competing on pretty equal terms as they each have seven runners tonight. Dennis now looks in good shape and among his runners I believe Ray’s Favourite, Winning Leader and Flying Elite will be his main chances to add to his winning tally. For Tony, his stable horses Bullish Boy, Bullish Friend and Super Goal Elite will be the main bearers of his hopes as he aims to reduce the deficit. Although John Size is now four wins away in third place, I think many racing fans would agree that it would be unwise to write off this seven-time champion trainer as he fields a few form runners such as Dr Good Habit, Red Dancer and Red Courage.
It promises to be a great night of racing, with a lot of fun and excitement and hopefully everyone will enjoy a happy ending to the season! Please remember the first race will start at 6.45pm and I’ll see you in the racecourse this evening. Among the nine races on the card I will be my special attention to the Glory Handicap, which is a Class 3 event over 1650m and the last race of the season. With the tight competition for the Trainer Championship, this race will likely be the decider of who will be the winner this season. Due to our current rules that in case of a tie in the number of wins the Championship will be decided on a countback to the number of horses placed second, Dennis Yip has to have one win more to be crowned as the season’s Champion Trainer.
His chances in the last race are good because the expected pace will be on the slow side, without any genuine leader in the race. His upcoming stable horse Flying Elite should be well positioned near the pace. Despite going up in class, the horse will enjoy advantage from his light weight and it will be my first choice for the race. Red Dancer from John Size, who, theorectically, has still had chance to win the Championship, is its main rival from the good draw in Gate 3. Being positioned in midfield, the horse possesses decent ability to accelerate and to run a strong last 400m. For other runners, Electronic Fortune can spoil the party, as well as Griffindor and Royal Partner who has to come from the back in his first attempt at 1650m in Happy Valley. They all are with place chances in this event.
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