Hong Kong: Flying Bonus gets help in the weights

Sometimes Flying Bonus stops, and sometimes he does not. The confirmed front-runner’s chances in a given race are dependent on how much other speed shows. Flying Bonus shook loose on the lead and won a Class 3 handicap going 1,200 meters on the Sha Tin dirt track by more than two lengths in his first start this season and will try to take down a bigger prize in Sunday’s featured eighth race.

This is another 1,200-meter dirt race but Flying Bonus moves up from Class 3 to a Class 2 for horses rated 105-80. Even after a seven-point rating rise following his Sept. 12 win, Flying Bonus, rated 81, has an assigned weight of just 113 pounds Sunday. Take off five more pounds since Flying Bonus has apprentice jockey Victor Wong named to ride and Flying Bonus gets as much as 25 pounds from top-rated Hong Kong Express.

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Rated 102, Hong Kong Express barely qualifies for this race and has proven form on the Sha Tin dirt track, but he prefers races at about one mile to sprints and hasn’t started since May. In fact, none of the four highest-rated entrants have raced since July and this race could be open to a lesser horse with circumstances in his favor.

First post for the mixed turf and dirt card is 1 a.m. Eastern on Saturday night. Catch all the action at DRFBets.com.

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* Hong Kong champion Golden Sixty was much the best on the morning of Oct. 5 in a training race run down the straight turf course at Sha Tin. Winner of 14 races in a row, Golden Sixty is scheduled to have two more training races – called barrier trials in Hong Kong – before launching his 2021-22 season Nov. 21 in the Group 2 Jockey Club Mile. Golden Sixty’s main goal before year’s end is the Hong Kong Mile in December.