Kwangtung Handicap Cup distance suits Elusive State
The Class 2 Kwangtung Handicap Cup, headed by top-rated Elusive State, is the featured race on an all-dirt program Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong.
The 1,650-meter Kwangtung is the fourth of nine races over what the Hong Kong Jockey Club officially terms Sha Tin’s all-weather track but is actually a sand-based dirt course.
Elusive State is very familiar with the surface, having made most of his 25 Hong Kong starts over it. Six-year-old Elusive State, an All American gelding trained by Tony Millard, won his first four races last Hong Kong season, rising from Class 4 handicaps to Class 2, and in the first start of his current campaign he finished a closing second in a Class 2 on Sept. 8 that, at 1,200 meters, fell short of his best trip.
Elusive State, who will have Joao Moreira in the irons, gives 10 pounds to the Sunday feature’s main ratings riser, the 4-year-old Buddies, who saw his official rating rise from 79 to 86 after he won a Class 3 handicap over Sunday’s 1,650-meter trip by 1 ¼ lengths on Sept. 15, his first start of the season. Buddies, a So You Think gelding trained by John Moore, has three wins and a second from his four Sha Tin dirt starts and carries just 121 pounds to Elusive State’s 131.