Packing Dragon improved monumentally during the 2016-17 Hong Kong racing season, but will he begin a new campaign where he left off? That question will be answered Wednesday night at Happy Valley, where Packing Dragon faces 11 foes in the $238,100 Washington D.C. Handicap. The race is contested at 1,650 meters (just over one mile) and is open to horses rated 80-100.
Happy Valley selections for Wednesday, September 13.
Andrew Hawkins' Happy Valley selections and analysis for Wednesday, September 13, 2017
It was Arc trials day Sunday at Chantilly, but how much relevance the three races had to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe next month is questionable.
Caravaggio and Happily won group stakes at The Curragh in Ireland on Sunday to earn automatic berths in Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar on Nov. 3-4. They were two of three group stakes winners on the eight-race card for trainer Aidan O’Brien.
Decorated Knight was last of 10 horses at three furlongs from home but first across the finish Saturday at Leopardstown Racecourse in the Group 1, $1.5 million Irish Champion Stakes.
There are three prep races Sunday at Chantilly for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, but the card's star attraction, Ribchester, isn't in any of them. Ribchester, Europe's top miler this year, will try to get back on track in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp.
Horse of Fortune and Romantic Touch, the first- and second-place finishers in the Group 3 Premier Plate Handicap in June, start their 2017-18 Hong Kong campaigns in Sunday’s $319,979 Kwangtang Handicap at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong.
Churchill was soundly beaten Aug. 23 in the Group 1 International Stakes at York, but even in defeat, he regained some faded burnish.
Andrew Hawkins' Sha Tin selections and analysis for Sunday, September 10, 2017
