Red Warrior continues march up in class at Happy Valley

Red Warrior has proven too good for Class 3 handicaps in Hong Kong and judging from his performance he probably can handle the featured Class 2 handicap on Wednesday night at Happy Valley Racecourse.

Red Warrior is one of a dozen in the main body of the featured eighth race, the $249,046 Tokyo Handicap, a 1,650-meter race for horses rated 80 to 100. Red Warrior is up to a rating of 86 after the Hong Kong handicapper boosted him eight points following an eye-catching win Oct. 18, and the 3-year-old, three races into his Hong Kong career, has risen 15 rating points.

Trained by John Size and ridden again Wednesday night by Zac Purton, Red Warrior is an Irish-bred by Holy Roman Emperor whose three starts in England last fall and this past winter came on all-weather surfaces. Hong Kong turf, if anything, has moved him up. Fourth going 1,200 meters in his Hong Kong debut, Red Warrior stretched to 1,650 meters – a little more than one circuit around the Happy Valley course – for his second Hong Kong start, showed good positional speed while rating kindly, and finished off that Sept. 26 race with a solid burst to win going away.

His Oct. 18 tally, which came under top weight of 133 pounds, unfolded in a different manner and was even more impressive. Breaking from the far outside, Purton angled his mount to the rail, found a position two paths off the fence far behind the early leader, bided his time until the far turn, and then launched an attack. Angling to the far outside as Purton went to the crop seven times, Red Warrior found his best stride with about 300 meters to run and had this race won well in advance of the finish, Purton gearing his mount down late.

Red Warrior is well drawn in post 4 and as he rises in class gets as much as 11 pounds from his higher-rated opponents. At the top of the ratings is Packing Dragon, who gets a three-pound weight break because apprentice jockey Matthew Poon rides. Seven-year-old Packing Dragon finished eighth as a 49-1 shot last out at Sha Tin but was competitive two starts back in a Class 2 going 1,800 meters at Happy Valley, and last Hong Kong season was a course-and-distance winner at the Class 1 level.

Post time for the feature is 9:50 a.m. Eastern, first post at 6:15.