RACING returns to Sha Tin this Sunday with a bumper 11-race card featuring the Class One TVB Cup (8.05am) over six furlongs.
There may be only eight runners in the contest, but it looks a tight race with no real standout chance.
Raging Blizzard and Gorgeous Win are the picks on recent form and ratings, and there was only a neck between them when they met over the course and distance last month.
A further neck behind in third that day was Copartner Prance and it’s interesting that Hong Kong all-time leading rider Zac Purton has chosen to hop back aboard the five-year-old, who has recorded all his seven wins with the Zac-Man in the saddle.
Son Pak Fu would also have merited consideration as a likely long shot, but the Tony Cruz yard continue in poor form and that is off-putting.
There are better opportunities for a wager on the card, notably with HONG LOK GOLF in the following race, the TVB Heroes In White Handicap (9.15am) over six furlongs.
Chris So’s four-year-old is unbeaten in two starts, having won on debut in November and then when following up early last month.
The form of his debut is working out well, with runner-up on that occasion, Sky Joy, winning twice since, while the third has also since visited the winners’ circle.
Last time he stayed on well down the centre of the track having emerged from stall nine, while on debut he stalked the pace on the rail, showing his versatility, and a middle draw in six looks ideal here.
Harry Bentley, who has been in the saddle for both of his two wins to date, should be perfectly positioned turning in and then have every chance of securing the hat-trick aboard this upwardly mobile sprinter.
POINTERS
Hong Lok Golf 9.15am Sha Tin