Hong Kong: Buddies carries heavy impost in handicap at Sha Tin

Buddies comes into Sunday’s featured seventh race at Sha Tin after consecutive wins, and he is paying for it in the weights.

This 1,600-meter Class 1 handicap is open to horses rated 110 to 85, and after a gate-to-wire one-length win in a Nov. 15 Class 1, Buddies got a five-pound rating hike up to 110. That saddles him with a 133-pound impost in Sunday’s race, but trainer Tony Cruz is subtracting seven of those pounds by riding apprentice jockey Jerry Chau. Chau was aboard when Buddies won a Class 2 handicap two starts ago at Happy Valley, and three in a row isn’t off the table given the limitations of Buddies’s 12 rivals.

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Among them is Fast Most Furious, who has an invitation to the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile next month but brings moribund form into Sunday’s start. Dropping from group races into a Class 1 in his most recent race, Fast Most Furious still only finished sixth, and with Chau’s apprentice allowance, it’s Fast Most Furious carrying top weight of 132 pounds. He shares that impost with 11-point rating riser Kings Shield, whose top performances have come over the Sha Tin dirt track.

Dip down to the bottom of the ratings here and find another 11-point riser in Sky Darci, the mount of Joao Moreira for Caspar Fownes, leading trainer this Hong Kong season. Sky Darci, a 4-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding, has four wins and two seconds from his seven Hong Kong starts and is two for two this season. He takes a massive class hike, however, rising from a Class 3 at Happy Valley into this Class 1 and has yet to race beyond 1,400 meters, going that far only once. Still, Sky Darci won last out by a 3 ¾ lengths, a vast margin by Hong Kong standards, and is in light at 114 pounds Sunday.

Post time for the feature is 4:10 a.m. Eastern on a card that starts at 12:45 a.m. Wagering and live video is available at DRFBets.com.

Invites out for Hong Kong International Races

Magical, second as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, leads the international invitees to the Hong Kong International Races on Dec. 13.

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Nothing has yet been fully confirmed, but trainer Aidan O’Brien did make comments this week suggesting Magical – and several other of his horses – could travel from Ireland for the races. Among the other possible runners are BC Mile upset winner Order of Australia as well as BC Mile third-place finisher Lope Y Fernandez. Breeders’ Cup runners Mogul and Peaceful are possible, respectively, for the Hong Kong Vase and the Hong Kong Cup.

Japan-based horses selected to start in the Hong Kong races include Win Bright, winner of the 2019 Hong Kong Cup and 2020 QE II Cup at Sha Tin, and Admire Mars, who captured the 2019 Hong Kong Mile.

Leading the locally based set of runners is Golden Sixty, who is likely to be favored to win the Mile.