Hong Kong: Loving a Boom comes into Happy Valley handicap off nightmare trip

Loving a Boom might have been launching an explosive winning move on the night of Dec. 23 at Happy Valley, but a wall of horses smothered his homestretch charge. If Loving a Boom’s fuse remains lit, he and Christophe Soumillon might have enough to overcome a load of weight in the last of nine Happy Valley races on Wednesday.

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This is a 1,200-meter Class 3 handicap for horses rated 80-60 and Loving a Boom, rated 80, takes the worst of things weight-wise, toting 133 pounds. But he was carrying the same impost last month in a race at this class level and distance and making a serious bid to reach contention between the 200- and 150-meter marks when Soumillon’s luck ran out, gaps closed, and Loving a Boom had to be snatched up.

He still managed to finish fourth of 12, and that after breaking from post 12 and being forced to wait too far behind the early leaders to avoid racing intemperately wide around the turn. Loving a Boom, the charge of trainer Richard Gibson, has post 6 this time around and is due a victory having dropped to Class 3 competition after racing mainly in Class 2s during the 2019-2020 Hong Kong season.

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Kinda Cool, weighted at 127 pounds, is a danger for trainer Frankie Lor and jockey Jo Moreira. One of three horses exiting a winning performance – the others are Baby and Here Comes Ted – Kinda Cool seeks his third win in a row and fourth in last six starts. Lor added blinkers two races ago, to obviously good effect, though it must be noted Kinda Cool got a perfect trip leading to his Class 3, 1,200-meter score under 120 pounds on Dec. 23.

Race 8 is a duplicate of the nightcap – Class 3, 1,200 meters – while race 7, another Class 3 handicap, is carded for 1,650 meters around two turns. First post for the program – available for wagering at DRFBets.com – is 5:45 a.m. Eastern.