It was a case of doubles all round for jockeys and trainers at Happy Valley this week.
Matthew Poon, Silvestre de Sousa and Karis Teetan all scored twice, Jimmy Ting continued his Valley hot streak with a pair and Francis Lui recorded his ninth double of the season to maintain his record of being on the mark at all five meetings in 2020.
Another notable trend was the continued success of homegrown handlers, with eight of nine races won by former riders who have been part of the Jockey Club’s system for all of their adult lives in one role or another.
Their continued success is something the Club can be proud of but this weekend the focus switches to the only man who stood in the way of a homegrown Wednesday clean sweep.
Hong Kong Win’s impressive success in Class 3 record time provided a timely reminder that John Size still has plenty of talent at his disposal and the champion trainer sends his stars to Sha Tin on Sunday for the Stewards’ Cup and the Centenary Sprint Cup.
John has dominated Hong Kong’s G1 sprint races over the last three years and our champion sprinter Beat The Clock faces three other Size runners and former stablemate Mr Stunning in the Centenary Sprint Cup.
John has never gone in for excessive emotion so it was fascinating to hear him say how humbling it was to see Beat The Clock digging deep to beat Hot King Prawn in a memorable LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint last month.
The door is ajar for this remarkably consistent horse to stake a Horse of the Year claim if he excels again and Beat The Clock’s stablemate Waikuku will also enter that conversation if he can get the better of dual Horse of the Year Beauty Generation again in the Stewards’ Cup.
Make no mistake, Beauty Generation has been a wonderful ambassador for Hong Kong racing but Waikuku now leads 3-1 in their head-to-head meetings this season.
Round five offers the old king a chance of redemption and, with the Four-Year-Old Classic Series about to get under way, the next few weeks will go a long way towards shaping the second half of the Hong Kong racing season.
This Sunday sees the return of a majority of our star horses in the two International Group 1 races, the Stewards‘ Cup and the Centenary Sprint Cup.
The Stewards’ Cup will be run at a good to slow pace with Ka Ying Star leading and the initial stages of the race could become quite tactical with Beauty Generation likely to get off the fence from gate 1 not to be restricted in his action behind Ka Ying Star, which may force Southern Legend to be ridden more forward. Waikuku from gate 7 will go back which is his usual style.
Waikuku is working very well and according to Moreira is at his very best and is for me the horse to beat. Beauty Generation is working very well and Purton was very happy with him after his last gallop. He should not be underestimated but has to be at his best to beat Waikuku.
While Furore seems to come back to his best I prefer him over 2000m, especially when the pace will be more on the good to slow side and while he is a place chance I prefer Citron Spirit over him for the number three spot.
The Centenary Sprint Cup is despite the absence of Aethero a race with fantastic depth and many live chances.
The pace is likely to be good to slow with Hot King Prawn leading and Mr Stunning in the box seat with Full Of Beauty and Beat The Clock in midfield.
Beat The Clock is working very well as is Mr Stunning and they are my first choices for a win and place. Having said that, Hot King Prawn should not be underestimated especially when left alone in front with no pressure.
The same applies for Full Of Beauty who had no room in the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint between the 400m and 300m and still ran the last 400m in 22.15 seconds.
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