Size has two for Singapore Turf Club Handicap
Hong Kong trainer John Size’s powerful stable is packed with high-class sprinters, and Size will deploy one of them, Amazing Kids, in the featured seventh race Sunday at Sha Tin.
Marcus HershMar 10, 2018
Hong Kong trainer John Size’s powerful stable is packed with high-class sprinters, and Size will deploy one of them, Amazing Kids, in the featured seventh race Sunday at Sha Tin.
A key player on Super Saturday at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai was, unfortunately, Meydan Racecourse itself. Four of the seven races Saturday, including the featured Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3, were contested on a dirt track that was wickedly fast and heavily biased toward inside speed. Two track records fell, including California Chrome’s 2:01.83 mark for 2,000 meters from the 2016 Dubai World Cup, which North America eclipsed in the Group 1, $400,000 Al Maktoum Challenge by running the distance in 2:01.71.
The 3-year-old colt Reride finished sixth in his only graded stakes start, the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last fall, and at the moment doesn’t appear to be an elite Kentucky Derby contender, but his connections believe he’ll suit another derby, the $2 million UAE Derby on March 31 at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
The Cheltenham festival for chasers and hurdlers cannot arrive soon enough in western England this week. After brutal winter weather in the last month that led to days of canceled races, temperatures have finally risen. Still, track crews removed approximately 200 tons of snow from the course in recent weeks.
Andrew Hawkins' Hong Kong selections and analysis for Sunday, March 11, 2018 - Sha Tin
Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner and Kentucky Derby hopeful Mendelssohn is expected to race for the first time as a 3-year-old Friday night at Dundalk in Ireland.
Gronkowski won the Road to the Kentucky Derby Conditions Stakes on Wednesday at Kempton Park in England, and became the co-leader in points on the European Road to the Kentucky Derby.
Happy Valley selections for Wednesday, March 7.
If Talismanic handles the Meydan Racecourse dirt track as well as he got over the Polytrack at Chantilly on Tuesday, he could be a major player March 31 in the $10 million Dubai World Cup.
Andrew Hawkins' Hong Kong selections and analysis for Wednesday, March 7, 2018 - Happy Valley