Hong Kong: Excellent Proposal has no Golden Sixty in his path for Lion Rock
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With no Golden Sixty involved, Excellent Proposal can deep-six his rivals Sunday at Sha Tin in the Group 3, $471,400 Lion Rock Trophy Handicap.
The featured seventh race on a 10-race card (first post 12:45 a.m. Eastern, with live video and wagering at DRFBets.com), the Lion Rock Trophy, a one-turn mile (1,600 meters) drew nine entrants, two more than the 2021 renewal. Mighty Giant is the starting highweight, carrying 133 pounds. The weights go all the way down to My Sugar at 114.
Excellent Proposal is decently weighted at 128, including jockey Joao Moreira, a four-time winner of the Lion Rock Trophy. His draw in post 7 is fine since Excellent Proposal prefers hold-up tactics and is dropping toward the rear of the field regardless of his starting stall.
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A 5-year-old gelding trained by Hong Kong legend John Size, Excellent Proposal is winless in eight starts during the 2021-22 Hong Kong season but appears to be edging toward a breakthrough. He exits the Group 1 Champions Mile, where he was no match for Hong Kong’s best horse, Golden Sixty, but still ran a strong race to finish third at level weights. Excellent Proposal raced last of eight through the race’s early stages but Moreira, feeling Zac Purton on pacesetting California Spangle begin to slow the tempo, decided his best choice was to go for an early move on the turn. That required a wide run with no cover, and by the head of the homestretch, Excellent Proposal had sling-shotted his way nearly to the lead. California Spangle and, even more so, Golden Sixty proceeded to sprint away from him the next furlong, but Excellent Proposal got his feet back under him, turned in a final 400 meters in a good 22.72 seconds, and was third, just a half-length behind Excellent Proposal. A repeat performance and Excellent Proposal will be formidable Sunday.
Healthy Happy, Beauty Joy, Silver Express, and My Sugar all possess some measure of pace and the Lion Rock Trophy tempo ought to be at least moderate. Beauty Joy comes off a solid Class 2 handicap win and with Purton in the irons has a chance to make his presence felt carrying 121 pounds.
Top-rated Mighty Giant really has struggled this season after an admirable 2020-21 campaign. He was caught wide early in the Champions Mile but got over to the two path by the turn and still dropped away tamely at the 500-meter mark.
* Hot King Prawn, an elite Hong Kong sprinter at the top of his game, was retired this week. Trained by John Size, Hot King Prawn was Hong Kong’s champion sprinter during the 2020-21 season and was retired as a 12-time winner with earnings of $4,788,616. The Australian-bred gelding is by Denman out of De Chorus, by Unbridled’s Song.