Celestial Power in with a feather in Sha Tin Class 2 handicap

A pair of 4-year-olds look live in the second of two Class 2 handicaps, the co-features on Sunday’s racing program at Sha Tin in Hong Kong.

While Super Football appears to be the horse with the bigger reputation, Celestial Power looks at least as capable in this 1,800-meter race around one turn and open to horses rated 105-80.

Fourteen were entered and nearly everyone at or near the top of the ratings carries tepid form into the last of 10 races. Super Football, and Celestial Power are rated 83 and both are thus weighted at 113 pounds, though Celestial Power gets three pounds off because his jockey, Jack Wong, is a three-pound apprentice. Top-rated Savvy Nine, by comparison, carries 133 pounds. Super Football, bred in New Zealand and imported from there to race the 2020-21 Hong Kong season, enters after consecutive Class 3 wins going 1,600 meters at Sha Tin. The weight helps, but he faces a class rise and a distance a furlong longer than any he’s yet tried, and Super Football, by More than Ready, is no certainty to stay the trip.

Celestial Power has raced 1,800 meters once and won that start, a Class 3 at Happy Valley on Jan. 6. That victory came one start after Celestial Power, running in a visor for the first time, overcame a wide draw to easily land a Class 3 over 1,600 meters at Sha Tin, and he has major excuses for two subsequent defeats. In the Hong Kong Classic Mile, he completely blew the break, giving up five to seven lengths in the first couple jumps and never getting involved. Last out, in a Happy Valley Class 3, Celestial Power wound up caught three paths wide with no cover off the first turn and onto the backstretch, and whether through merely poor decision-making or panic, his rider urged him up to high speed to sweep from sixth to the lead midway around the far turn. Celestial Power remained in front until midstretch when, understandably, he tired and eventually checked in fifth.

Race 3 is another Class 2 handicap, this one for horses rated 100-80 and contested over a straight 1,000 meters. The race brings out the John Size-trained Ping Hai Bravo, who was floundering until Size made two changes, cutting him back from 1,200 meters races to 1,000 and running the gelding in a tongue tie. Ping Hai Bravo since has three wins and a second-place finish. He won authoritatively last out in a Class 3 at Sha Tin and even with a nine-point rating rise, to 87, gets in at a manageable 123 pounds Sunday.

First post for the card is midnight Eastern. You can catch all the action at DRFBets.com.