Harmony and Rich coming into his own at Happy Valley

If you go with the sharp horse in the featured eighth race Wednesday at Happy Valley in Hong Kong, you’re going with Harmony and Rich.

Four-year-old Harmony and Rich just was plugging along this Hong Kong season, spinning his wheels in Class 3 handicaps, finishing no better than fourth in his first six races. Something changed, though, because Harmony and Rich broke through with a Class 3 win three starts ago, then won again in his most recent race, pressing the pace in a 1,000-meter contest and going on to a 1 3/4-length victory, the best race of his life.

An eight-point rating rise has Harmony and Rich up to 85, his highest Hong Kong mark, and lands him in his first Class 2 contest, another 1,000-meter race, with a manageable weight of 120, including jockey Matthew Chadwick. Harmony and Rich has post 9 but plenty of pace to get position before the race’s one turn, and he gets 13 pounds from top-rated Grateful Heart.

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Valiant Dream also has won two out of his last three starts and is up six points in the ratings, but those victories came at Sha Tin and he ran less effectively two races ago at Happy Valley.

There does appear to be quite a bit of speed signed on to the Wednesday headliner and if Harmony and Rich gets swept up in a taxing pace, late-running Explosive Witness, who has closed effectively before in 1,000-meter Happy Valley races, could benefit.

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The Wednesday card (first post 6:45 a.m. Eastern, all the action available at DRFBets.com) is a good one, with three Class 3 handicaps on the program with the feature, and a couple of lightly raced, promising horses appear in the entries. Among the dozen entered in race 9, a 1,200-meter sprint, is McLucky, a 4-year-old Australian import who needed his Hong Kong debut three races ago, ran a good second two back, and bested Class 3 opposition in his most recent start. Harmony Fire goes in race 3, another 1,000-meter contest, the fifth career start for a 3-year-old who only has raced in Hong Kong. Harmony Fire won a Class 4 by a narrow margin in his second start but cruised to a two-length score at the same level in his most recent race and gets into this heat with a reasonable 122 pounds.