Time is moving on swiftly as the challenges of 2020 continue and this Wednesday’s Happy Valley meeting means we are already a quarter of the way through the Hong Kong racing season.
Not everything has gone to plan for some of our leading players and Zac Purton – now 11 winners behind Joao Moreira with a two-meeting ban coming up early next month – is facing an increasingly tough task to retain his jockeys’ title.
But the overall picture is encouraging. Turnover for last weekend’s Sha Tin card, boosted by strong commingling to produce a record Saturday card figure, shows that interest in Hong Kong racing remains at a very high level both locally and internationally.
That global appeal has always been boosted by the presence of high-class international riders and Alexis Badel continued his fine recent form by completing a treble when Ping Hai Bravo ran down the heavily-backed Joyful Fortune.
The decision to ride here full time is working out very well for Alexis, whose positive mentality and ability to ride light will continue to be valuable assets as we move into the next phase of the season.
And, speaking of valuable assets, it’s also well worth noting that Beauty Rush’s all-the-way win under Vagner Borges on Saturday was the 50th success of the season for horses trained from Conghua since their previous start.
Ensuring that staff and horses have smooth passage from our Mainland base has been difficult since Covid-19 emerged but our teams have handled the challenge extremely well and the fact more than one in four of all winners this season have travelled down from our second site is clear testament to the value horses derive from being able to spend time there.
The stringent quarantine protocols developed to ensure free movement of horses and staff between Hong Kong and Conghua during the pandemic have played a significant part in helping create our latest biosecurity measures for this year’s HKIR visitors.
There is no question that we still have a number of significant obstacles to clear. Creating a new Racing Bubble for trainers, riders and grooms is one thing but we cannot control the fact that a significant number of horsemen who are hoping to come here for this year’s HKIR face the prospect of Christmas in quarantine when they return home because of the disease situation in other countries.
Rest assured we will do all we can to ensure the strongest possible line-ups for a showpiece event that is now only three weeks away, but in the meantime we can look forward to most of Hong Kong’s strongest contenders aiming to enhance their HKIR hopes in three valuable Group 2 contests on Jockey Club day at Sha Tin this weekend.
Wednesday’s Class 2 Cheung Hong Handicap is the eighth of nine races on the night and will be run over 1650m. Bear Again and Solar Wai Wai will go forward to set a moderate tempo with Green Luck, Alpha Hedge and Magnificent in the next flight.
The pace of the race should benefit Solar Wai Wai, second up for the season and in top form after finishing second to Saturday’s Panasonic Cup winner Buddies over this course and distance with Green Luck coming home strongly for fourth.
Solar Wai Wai is a win and place chance under Karis Teetan, while Green Luck is also a win and place chance for Moreira over his ideal course and distance. Bear Again is a place chance along with Sunshine Warrior, who should improve for his first run of the season where he failed to secure a clear run.
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