Rattan back on short rest for Kwangtung Handicap Cup

It’s old-timers day Sunday at Sha Tin.

Just five horses were entered in the featured second race, the $334,371 Kwangtung Handicap Cup, and four of them are either 7-year-olds or 8-year-olds. Rattan, 5, is the youngster in the bunch and so spry is he that trainer Richard Gibson runs him back on just a week’s rest.

Rattan, in American racing terms, was “hustled” into the Sunday feature, which had only four entrants during the first round of entries. Rattan raced last Sunday at Sha Tin and ran well on the first card of the 2018-2019 Hong Kong season, closing stoutly from 12th to finish second by a nose at the same 1400-meter trip over which this weekend’s feature will be contested. Last week’s race was a Class 2 handicap, this a Class 1, but the field Sunday is not especially strong for the level and Rattan gets 11 pounds from top-rated Horse of Fortune.

Jolly Banner, the second-highest rated runner at 107, won last year's Kwangtung, his only victory during the entire 2017 – 2018 season. He also fired fresh in 2016 making his Hong Kong debut and is a reliable performer in Class 1 handicaps over this trip. He should run competitively Sunday.

:: Hong Kong: Free PPs, picks, and analysis

Romantic Touch’s highest placing in 14 starts last season was a second-place finish, though it is worth noting that performance came under the same conditions as Sunday’s race.

Horse of Fortune is winless in 15 months but did spend much of last season knocking heads with group stakes rivals, while Packing Dragon does his best work several kilometers away at Happy Valley Racecourse.

Post time for the Sunday feature is 1:20 a.m. Eastern with the lid-lifter scheduled a half-hour earlier.