Happy Valley opener features Yau Oi Handicap

Perpetual Joyance ended the 2016-17 Hong Kong season in excellent form, finishing first and a close second in his last two starts.

Those performances alone make Perpetual Joyance capable of winning Wednesday’s $237,690 Yau Oi Handicap at six furlongs on turf at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong. The presence of leading jockey Joao Moreira on Perpetual Joyance might make the 5-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding the favorite.

Moreira won five races on Sunday’s program at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong, the opening day of the 2017-18 season. Wednesday’s program is the first card of the season at Happy Valley, which typically runs during the middle of the week.

Moreira, the leading rider at the 2016-17 season, rode Perpetual Joyance to a sixth-place finish in a handicap at Happy Valley in May. Perpetual Joyance is trained by John Size and has won 4 of 15 starts in his career.

The improving Convincible and the 5-year-old gelding Verbinsky are two runners with leading chances in a field of 12 in the Yau Oi Handicap.

Convincible won his final two starts of the 2016-17 season, handicaps at six furlongs on turf at Happy Valley in May and July. He rose steadily in Hong Kong’s handicap ratings at the end of the season, going from a 77 in May to a current mark of 90.

The Yau Oi Handicap is restricted to horses rated from 80 to 100. JetWings, who was ninth in his final start of the 2016-17 season, is the top-rated runner in the race at 95, and will carry highweight of 132 pounds. Convincible will carry 127 pounds since he is rated five points lower.

Perpetual Joyance will carry 119 pounds, while Verbinsky will carry 126.

Verbinsky was third in a six-furlong handicap at Happy Valley in July, leading in the stretch before losing by a length. Verbinsky is winless in his last six starts, but won at six furlongs on turf at Happy Valley last October and November.