Saturday racing in Hong Kong this weekend and the return of Wah May Star, who promises to be competitive in the four-year-old classics a little later in the season.
Already a winner of five from 12 in his two and three-year-old seasons, Wah May Star is a Fusaichi Pegasus out of the family of Doncaster winner Skating, and the beautifully-bred grey has always looked like making the grade for like the Group One Classic Mile and Derby.
The gelding has yet to win first-up, but he had excuses each time, and the Panasonic Cup over 1,400m on Saturday offers him a great chance to correct that record.
As with any feature race at Sha Tin, it’s impotant to include the John Moore team in calculations and Kyara will give Tim Clark the chance to keep his excellent season going. He is a difficult ride and often strikes trouble, as he did when beaten first-up this season, but Kyara is quite talented when the breaks go his way and is well placed down in the weights.
Australian jockey Zac Purton continues to bowl along at the top of the jockeys’ championship and he rides a likely improver in the feature, the talent but brittle Fair Trade, as part of a powerful book of rides for the day.
Primary amongst them could be lowly Class Five galloper General Danroad in the first race – he goes better for Purton than anyone and has been freshened again after an excellent second on opening day – and Strathtay in the final race.
Only lightly-raced, Strathtay has two wins from his seven runs in Hong Kong and only scrambled home at his second run from the break but is open to more improvement and it will surprise if he doesn’t win his way out of Class Three soon.
By Nathan Mody
