Hong Kong: With pull in weights, Highland Fortune could end losing streak

Highland Fortune went winless during a 10-start 2020-21 Hong Kong racing season but has found a good spot in the featured ninth race Wednesday at Happy Valley to break a losing streak.

One of a dozen runners entered in a Class 2 handicap over 1,650 meters, Highland Fortune has a recency edge on most of his rivals, positional pace to work out a favorable trip from a good draw, and a very manageable impost of 116 pounds.

Highland Fortune’s Hong Kong rating is 86 in a race open to horses rated 105-80, and six of the seven horses with higher ratings have yet to make a start this Hong Kong season. The seventh, Rattan, has raced 39 times during his Hong Kong career but never at Happy Valley, and he appears better suited to shorter distances.

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Five-year-old Highland Fortune, an American-bred son of Declaration of War who began racing in Ireland, was campaigned as a sprinter during much of his Hong Kong career but might have run his best race of last season when tried for the first time in a 1,650-meter Happy Valley contest. He was second in that race, another Class 2 that was his final start of the season, and in his most recent start led and held second in a 1,600-meter Class 2 handicap at Sha Tin. The shorter Happy Valley homestretch should better suit Highland Fortune than the Sha Tin layout and Karis Teetan, aboard the last four starts, has the mount again Wednesday.

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Highland Fortune gets 16 or 17 pounds from the race’s top weights, and three of them – Reliable Team, Not Usual Talent, and Savvy Nine – drew the outside posts in a race that starts basically right on the first of two turns.

The Wednesday card starts at 6:45 a.m. Eastern and you can catch all the action at DRFBets.com.