Top Horses Return To Action On Chinese National Day

The Chinese national day holiday meeting on October 1 at Sha Tin sees the real start of the Hong Kong racing season proper as the top horses start to return to action.

On Wednesday, it’s a Group 3 formerly called the Sha Tin Sprint Trophy, now renamed the National Day Cup over the straight 1,000m which sees Dubai winners Sterling City and Amber Sky resume.

Then on Sunday comes the 1,400m Group 3, previously the National Day Cup but now renamed the Celebration Cup, featuring a swag of A-graders including Horse Of The Year, Designs On Rome, as well as Group One winners Gold-Fun, Blazing Speed, Dominant and California Memory.

But first things first and, with Australia’s Lankan Rupee faltering, the title of world’s best sprinter might be up for grabs and Sterling City and Amber Sky might be fringe candidates, particularly the former if he can win the Hong Kong Sprint in December.

Sterling City has raced only once down the straight for a win at the beginning of his career and has been kept to circle racing since, so it will be interesting to see how he adjusts to the different style of racing.

Brilliant speed horse Amber Sky, on the other hand, is a straight course specialist, failing to handle the turns when tried at 1,200m in the past so the advantages are with him over Sterling City and he has the Magic Man, Joao Moreira on board.

The race doesn’t finish there with Tony Cruz-trained Peniaphobia and David Hall’s pair, Rad and Bundle Of Joy, getting huge amounts of handicap weight off the Group One performers. Rad is particularly interesting – he has never been beaten in five career races, three in Hong Kong down the straight, but has a change of jockey to Keith Yeung with Douglas Whyte unable to make the weight and switching to Sterling City.

By Nathan Mody

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