It’s the quiet before the storm in Hong Kong this Sunday, with quite a low-key meeting to precede the big one next week when the international stars turn up.
The Jockey Club is saving the track surface for international day so only four of the eleven races are on turf and one of the turf races is down the straight course and that won’t be used on international day.
It’s a Zac Purton-free meeting once again, and punters will turn again to Joao Moreira and Douglas Whyte, who carved up the meeting last week with eight wins between them.
Moreira has already set up a break of ten wins over Purton in the jockey premiership and he should extend his break, with great chances all day in Dashing Fellow, King Haradasun, Imperial Concorde, Startling Power, Hidden Value and Sight Believer.
Dashing Fellow could be the standout. He was expensive for punters when beaten at odds-on last start but steps up to 1,400m in a moderate race and that looks a positive.
Hidden Value is an interesting proposition on the dirt for the first time – his work has always been sharper than his race form, even though he has won twice, and that is often a pointer to a horse suited to dirt racing.
Whyte doesn’t have the firepower he had last week and his best look like the David Hall-trained pair, Heroic Guru and Master Kochanwong.
Master Kochanwong is an established dirt sprinter sure to run well in the tenth, but the booking of Whyte for Heroic Guru looks a free clue. The gelding has had four starts and been huge odds in all of them for unfashionable jockeys, but caught the eye running on for fifth at Happy Valley last time and now Whyte climbs aboard.
By Nathan Mody
