Hong Kong: Lightning Steed can begin Happy Valley season at fair price; gets significant weight concession

In terms of quality, it’s a quiet start to the Happy Valley phase of the 2020-2021 Hong Kong racing season.

Three Class 3 handicaps for horses rated 80-60 finish off an eight-race Happy Valley program on Wednesday, the second card of the new Hong Kong season following Sunday’s races at Sha Tin. Races 7 and 8 are carded at 1,200 meters, while race 6 is at 1,650 meters, one lap around the irregular Happy Valley course.

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In race 6, Lightning Steed, drawn sweetly in post 2 with Joao Moreira, could be worth a play at fair odds. Rated just 63, Lightning Steed really turned a corner at the end of the 2019-2020 Hong Kong season, winning two in a row before a second-place finish to close his campaign on July 8. Moreira was aboard for the first of those two wins, and after going gate to wire in two 1,650-meter starts, Lightning Steed showed tactical versatility rallying from eighth to second going 1,800 meters in his season finale.

Lightning Steed gets as much as 16 pounds from his rivals, though top-rated Alpha Hedge, despite carrying 133 pounds, could be a factor. Alpha Hedge, drawn next to Lightning Steed in stall 3, closed his 2019-2010 campaign with a win and two seconds in Class 3 racing at Happy Valley and has a firmer foothold at the level than a recent riser like Lightning Steed.

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First post for the card is 7:15 a.m. Eastern. Wagering and live streaming video with on-site analysis is available at DRFBets.com.

* Perfect Match will be aimed toward the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint in December following an easy opening-day victory Sunday in a Class 1 handicap over 1,200 meters at Sha Tin. Perfect Match stormed to a 1 1/2-length victory in a snappy time of 1:08.42. Perfect Match, a 5-year-old Australian import trained by Clifford Shum, now has won half his 16 Hong Kong starts. Before Sunday he’d been most successful in 1,400 meter races, but was up in plenty of time at the shorter trip under jockey Alexi Badel.