Declan Schuster's Hong Kong Selections and Analysis for Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Declan Schuster's Hong Kong Selections and Analysis for Wednesday, January 13, 2021 at Happy valley.
webmasterJan 11, 2021
Declan Schuster's Hong Kong Selections and Analysis for Wednesday, January 13, 2021 at Happy valley.
Hong Kong Selections for Sunday, January 10, 2021 at Sha Tin.
They’re saving the best for last Sunday at Hong Kong, the feature, a Class 2 handicap over 1,400 meters on turf, carded as the last of 10 races at Sha Tin. This is a hot-looking race, 14 strong, for horses rated 100-80, and includes horses making their first Hong Kong start and three entrants exiting good wins.
Almond Eye was named Japan’s 2020 Horse of the Year earlier this week, becoming the first two-time winner of the award since Kitasan Black in 2016-17 and the sixth repeat winner of this century.
After clean-sweeping last season’s Four-Year-Old Classic Series with the brilliant Golden Sixty, trainer Francis Lui is looking to Lucky Patch (117lb) this time around and Sunday’s (10 January) Class 2 Choi Hung Handicap (1400m) will see him lay out his credentials for a Hong Kong Classic Mile tilt in 16 days’ time.
A return to shorter races and a start at his home track may help Nashville Sound end a 13-race losing streak in the Koroit Cup at Warrnambool Racecourse in Australia on Sunday.
Two weeks after his first group stakes win, Spirit Ridge will be favored to win a slightly lower quality race in Saturday’s listed $116,400 January Cup at 1 1/4 miles at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Australia.
A collaboration of champion jockeys – past and present – and brutal discipline paved the way for Savvy Nine to belatedly break his Hong Kong maiden in emphatic style with victory in the G3 January Cup Handicap (1800), leaving Douglas Whyte to celebrate his first Group winner as a trainer.
David Hayes will cast unbeaten Beauty Joy (116lb) into a daunting Sha Tin initiation in the Class 2 Choi Hung Handicap (1400m) on Sunday (10 January) in a contest featuring the return of Excellent Proposal (132lb) and a host of international form lines.
Declan Schuster's Hong Kong Selections and Analysis for Saturday, January 9, 2021 at Sha Tin.