Hong Kong: Jockey race between Moreira, Purton could come down to Class 1 feature

Turin Redsun and Money Catcher have managed to put together successful 2021-22 Hong Kong campaigns without actually winning a race, and they’ll have one last chance Saturday at Sha Tin to notch a victory this season.

The two 4-year-olds are among 11 entered in the featured eighth race Saturday, closing day of the Hong Kong season. First post for the program is 12:30 a.m. Eastern with the feature, a Class 1 handicap carded for 1,600 meters on turf for horses rated 115-90, set for 4:05 a.m.

That’s early in America but it’s getting very late for Turin Redsun, who is 8-0-3-2 this season, and Money Catcher, who is 9-0-2-4, to visit the winner’s circle before Hong Kong racing goes dark until December.

The matchup between these two in the closing-day feature runs even deeper because Zac Purton rides Turin Redsun and Joao Moreira is aboard Money Catcher. The two jockeys enter the program dead even in the race to be leading rider this season.

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Turin Redsun contested all three legs of the 4-year-old Classic series earlier this year, his best finish a second in the 1,800-meter Classic Cup. Money Catcher jumped into the series in the Classic Cup, where he was third at a huge price, and went on to finish third again going 2,000 meters in the Hong Kong Derby, where Turin Redsun could muster only a sixth-place showing. Money Catcher has since tried racing at Happy Valley and over the Sha Tin dirt course, but nothing yet has yielded a victory. Turin Redsun has stuck to Sha Tin turf racing and exits a fine second in the Group 3 Premier Cup over 1,800 meters. Turin Redsun’s trip wasn’t ideal last out, but he got a whopping 19 pounds from the horse who beat him, Tourbillon Diamond.

Turin Redsun breaks from post 4 carrying 121 pounds Saturday while Money Catcher is drawn directly outside him at 118 pounds. None of the top-rated horses in the race – Mighty Giant, Champions Way, and Excellent Proposal – are going to inspire fear in their current form, and it’s hard to know what to make of upstart Bourbonaire. Bourbonaire had lost his first six Hong Kong starts before catching a yielding course in an 1,800-meter Class 2 on July 1 at Sha Tin. Pressing the early pace, Bourbonaire took over before the turn and ran away to a huge six-length win that earned him an 11-point rating rise and a chance at Class 1 competition on the last day of the Hong Kong season.