Thor to hammer his rivals on Sha Tin dirt
RACING in Hong Kong returns to Sha Tin on Sunday, with a mixed bag of action on turf and the all-weather surface.
The 11-race programme features the Class Three Junction Handicap (8.05am) over the extended mile on the all-weather surface, and includes some of the top dirt performers in the city, such as Talents Ambition and Dragon Air Force, who between them, have won seven races and been placed 10 times.
Both have made themselves popular with racing fans with their trademark finishing-kicks, but are prisoners to fate, needing strongly run races to show their best form.
With rival Telecom Fighters likely to lead from the off, but unlikely to scatter the field with fast sectional times, this could turn into a sprint down the home straight and not help the chances of the principle pair.
ROMANTIC THOR produced an encouraging first performance on the surface last month, when after looking all over the winner halfway down the home straight, he was run down in the closing stages by rivals Sky Vino and Dragon Air Force.
Jockey Zac Purton may have unusually made a mistake by sitting too close to the early pace early on – the majority of sectional times in the contest were below standard times – and then found the petrol tank empty when the charge for glory ensued.
The winning-most jockey in Hong Kong never makes the same mistake twice, and is likely to take a more patient approach this time.
The former UK galloper known as Capulet, and a winner of the Listed Dee Stakes at Chester for trainer Aidan O’Brien, has a pedigree to die for, and must have cost a fortune, being a son of Kentucky Derby winner Justify.
Connections have so far not recouped much of their initial outlay, with just two placings in 10 races, and will be banking on Purton, and trainer Danny Shum, to get that elusive first win on the board.
POINTERS
Romantic Thor 8.05am Sha Tin