Gallant Crown hitting his stride for Happy Valley opener

Gallant Crown ended his last campaign hitting hard and might be able to do some real damage in his first start of the 2021-22 Hong Kong racing season.

Gallant Crown starts in race 6 on Wednesday at Happy Valley, the first of three Class 3 handicaps – all at different distances – that cap the first Happy Valley racing program of the season. As usual, the midweek offerings are complex and challenging, with a quintet of Class 4 races starting the program.

First post is 6:15 a.m. Eastern and you can catch all the action at DRFBets.com.

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Trained by Tony Millard, Gallant Crown, a New Zealand-bred 5-year-old, needed several starts to find himself last season, but once Gallant Crown began racing over 1,650 meters, one lap around Happy Valley’s course and the trip he tries Wednesday, he established quite a solid baseline. Gallant Crown won three straight Class 4s between December and February and after a couple decent races in defeat at the Class 3 level, he wound up his form cycle with a narrow victory under the same conditions as Wednesday’s. Gallant Crown picks up three pounds off that win, carrying a manageable 120, and has a good draw in post 4. Karis Teetan, aboard for two of last season’s wins, has the call.

Top-rated Sunny Star won this same race (Class 3, 1,650 meters) in his penultimate start of the 2020-21 season and the presence of apprentice jockey Jerry Chau brings the weight he totes Wednesday down to 128 pounds.

Chau also rides top-rated Flying Genius in race 7, a 1,000-meter dash, but Millard might have found something late last season with a gelding named Resolute. After racing most of the year on dirt at Sha Tin, Resolute tried a 1,000-meter straight-course turf race there, finishing third, and on July 14 he ran 1,000 meters around a bend at Happy Valley and won a Class 3 by 1 1/4 lengths. Joao Moreira, runaway leading rider last season, picks up the mount.

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Moreira lands on the John Size-trained Rhapsody in the nightcap, a 1,200-meter sprint. Rhapsody would have to overcome post 11 but gets into this race at just 115 pounds, getting as much as 17 pounds from top-rated class-dropper Winning Method. Size raced Rhapsody at Sha Tin in his first eight Hong Kong races and got an immediate positive result after moving the gelding to Happy Valley, where he won a Class 4 going 1,200 meters on May 19. After two fruitless tries at this Class 3 level, Rhapsody finished with interest to get second, beaten only a nose, in his season’s finale.