Citron Spirit due for some luck in Washington D.C. Handicap

In the last five months, Citron Spirit has either run into a tough rival or had a difficult trip in sprint handicaps at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong.

Last April and May, Citron Spirit lost consecutive starts to the rapidly improving Rise High. On Sept. 2, opening day of the Hong Kong season, Citron Spirit encountered trouble and finished third, beaten a neck.

Perhaps Citron Spirit will have a clean trip in Saturday’s $249,233 Washington D.C. Handicap at seven furlongs on turf at Sha Tin, the last of 10 races. This will be the first program in Hong Kong since Sept. 12. Racing was canceled last weekend when a typhoon struck Southeast Asia.

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Citron Spirit, a 6-year-old Irish-bred trained by Ricky Yui, has been assigned 130 pounds, but will carry 120 with jockey Victor Wong’s 10-pound claim. Wong, 24, rode Citron Spirit to a third-place finish behind Rise High last spring.

Citron Spirit was a Group 3 winner at Baden-Baden, Germany, in 2014, and has won 4 of 26 starts in Hong Kong. He tends to race as a stalker.

The 133-pound topweight is Joyful Trinity, who is taking a much-needed drop in class after racing in higher-class handicaps and group races in Hong Kong. Trained by Caspar Fownes, Joyful Trinity is winless in his last 17 starts, since the Group 3 Celebration Cup at seven furlongs on turf at Sha Tin in October 2016.

Zac Purton, the leading rider at the 2017-18 Hong Kong season and the leading rider at the current meeting, has the mount on Joyful Trinity.

Sunday’s race will be the Hong Kong debut of Volpino, who was second in the Group 2 Queensland Guineas in Australia in June 2017 in his most recent start. Now trained by Benno Yung, Volpino will carry 118 pounds.