Hong Kong: Class 2 handicaps help close out racing season

A pair of Class 2 handicaps close out the Wednesday night card at Happy Valley Racecourse – as well as the 2019-2020 racing season in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong racing goes dark for the rest of July and during August with the 2020-2021 season commencing on Sept. 1 – barring any further problems from the coronavirus pandemic. The Hong Kong Jockey Club just this week distributed a revised set of policies due to a local COVID-19 case surge.

Race 8, the Hawthorn Handicap, is the first of the Class 2’s, open to horses rated 100-80 and contested at 1,650 meters, one lap around the irregular Happy Valley course. Several horses exit the seventh race from June 24, which was run under these same conditions and won by Star Shine, who earned a six-point rating rise for his victory. Star Shine benefited greatly from a great ride from Zac Purton, who followed all the right horses and hit every possible hole at exactly the right moment. It’s hard to imagine things going as well for Star Shine again Wednesday, though he gets Purton back and drew well in post 2.

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Insayshable was pushed wide and came home about as fast as Star Shine last out, but also is riding a 21-race winless streak into Wednesday’s contest.

Magnificent, who split Star Shine and Insayshable on June 24, prefers forward placements and has been a model of consistency this season. But his lack of a late punch makes him vulnerable to faster-finishing horses, of which there are many in Hong Kong. Four-year-old Shining Gem, who has won two of his last three, is such an animal but has been sticking almost exclusively to 1,200-meter races this season and is unproven at Wednesday’s trip. Top-rated Butterfield (98) comes from the other direction, dropping back from 1,800-meter starts at Sha Tin and Happy Valley.

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Race 9, the season closer, is carded over 1,200 meters, and if poetic justice takes a role in the proceedings, Sunny Boy will win. John Moore, the legendary Hong Kong horseman, is 70, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s mandatory retirement age for trainers, and Sunny Boy will be his last Hong Kong runner before he returns to his native Australia to train a string. Sunny Boy comes off a win, but recently has been racing on Sha Tin’s dirt track and doesn’t appear to possess contending Happy Valley turf form. Victoriam and Highland Fortune, both last-start winners, enter in peak form and look very live, though Highland Fortune, while favorably weighted, drew somewhat poorly in post 10.