Charity Glory was the star horse for our race meeting at Happy Valley in the midweek as this Danny Shum trainee moved to the top of the Hong Kong Airlines Million Challenge standings with his latest win in a Class 3 handicap. We have two more race meetings before this Happy Valley racing series concludes in a fortnight’s time and it will be interesting to see if any other leading contenders can get the results needed to claim the big bonus on offer for the most successful horses in Class 3 races or higher at our city track.
Joao Moreira, Neil Callan, Derek Leung and Vincent Ho all drew blanks at the Valley on Wednesday but they turned their battleground to the AsiaWorld-Expo, participating in the annual Race of the Riders competition in the first of three nights at the Longines Masters Hong Kong last night.
Joao partnered French equestrian rider Roger-Yves Bost in winning this event last year but this year’s honours went to the all-Hong Kong team of Vincent Ho and Clarissa Lyra. My many congratulations to Vincent and Clarissa and hope everyone in attendance enjoyed a festive evening.
It was a great evening and I believe each of the four jockeys had plenty of fun. The Longines Masters competition continues today and tomorrow, but our jockeys will now get their attention back to racing at Sha Tin this afternoon. There are two Class 2 handicaps among the 10 races on the card today, including the seventh race which is the Kwong Wah Handicap, run over 1600m of the C+3 course.
The pace is projected to be good-to-slow with the unbeaten Conte expected to go forward in this event with Spicy Sure and Easy Go Easy Win tracking. Eastern Express likely won’t be too far behind with Lockheed and Last Kingdom in midfield. Dragon Lips and Keen Venture should be near the rear with Zilong and Hang’s Decision.
The two clear market leaders, Conte and Easy Go Easy Win are both working very well and the undoubted edge goes to Conte, who looks to be another star in the making for the John Size yard, and has done nothing wrong in his four starts to date and rates a strong winning hope yet again today.
Easy Go Easy Win is just a 3-year-old, but was very solid against Pingwu Spark in his last race, beaten less than two lengths when blocked for clear running in mid-stretch. Once he got into the open, he ran on well and he could be a danger if getting a clear passage this time. Lockheed emerges from the Hong Kong Classic Mile where he was pushed forward in the middle of the race to obtain a closer position. While he did not show much after setting the quickest second sectional in that race, his first two local races were strong, particularly his second race where he was impeded in the late stages. He is a placing chance today. Keen Venture may need a stronger-than-expected pace to show his best, and if there is one, he can be in the mix.
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