By Leo Schlink

Ellis Wong celebrated a significant milestone in his fledgling career at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (13 March) when the apprentice exploited his 10lb claim to maximum effect with a double on Happy Horse and Moments in Time.

Wong, 23, made the most of his opportunities by striking in tandem with Manfred Man when Happy Horse prevailed in the Class 5 Ap Lei Chau Handicap (1000m) before sealing his first double when Chilean Group 1 winner Moments In Time swept to victory in the Class 3 Peng Chau Handicap (1800m).

Banbridge, the 8-year-old gelding who starts in Thursday’s Grade 1 Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham Racecourse in Britain, represents the lower profile side of Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien’s stable, at least in the eyes of many American racing fans.

O’Brien, who has won such races as the 2018 Irish Derby, the Melbourne Cup twice, and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf with Iridessa at Santa Anita in 2019, also has a successful jump racing division.

By Declan Schuster

Tomodachi Kokoroe (128lb) has been one of this season’s best improvers and he’s aiming to join a select club when he shoots for a fifth win this season in Wednesday night’s (13 March) Class 2 Soko Islands Handicap (1200m) at Happy Valley.

Only two horses have won five races or more this term, I Give (six) and Happy Together (five), while Tomodachi Kokoroe has been a revelation for trainer David Hayes, netting his quartet across the past seven starts.

Paul Lally:

R1 3-2-10-9
R2 3-1-4-2
R3 7-5-11-8
R4 3-1-8-9
R5 8-1-5-2
R6 1-3-8-2
R7 6-4-5-1
R8 2-7-4-10
R9 9-8-4-7

Best Bet R4 N3 Copartner Prance
Longshot R8 N2 Moments In Time
Plays R5 1-5-8

Mark McNamara:

R1 – 2.4.10.5
R2 – 3.1.4.5
R3 – 11.5.3.6
R4 – 3.1.9.8
R5 – 2.8.4.10
R6 – 1.2.3.6
R7 – 9.5.4.8
R8 – 7.4.10.9
R9 – 8.9.2.4

Saudi Cup winner Senor Buscador and runner-up Ushba Tesoro top 13 horses announced Monday by the Dubai Racing Club as likely runners in the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 30.

Senor Buscador beat Ushba Tesoro by a head in the Saudi Cup, a 1 1/8-mile race around one turn, but Ushba Tesoro is the defending champion in the two-turn, 1 1/4-mile Dubai World Cup, having captured the 2023 renewal by 2 3/4 lengths. 

Senor Buscador is one of four American-based horses among the projected runners along with Newgate, Newgrange, and Crupi. 

By the end of Wednesday’s seven-race program at Cheltenham Racecourse in Britain, Irish trainer Willie Mullins may have reached 100 career wins at the track’s prestigious National Hunt festival, or be ominously close to being the first person to do so.

Mullins has odds-on favorites in three of the four Grade 1 races on Wednesday, a program as much about the future as the present. On Tuesday, the first of four consecutive days of racing at the Cheltenham festival, Mullins has two odds-on favorites in Grade 1 races, and expected favorites in three of the other five races.

Race 1: #1 Ace Talent, #3 Mr Good Vibes, #4 Happy Tango, #10 Great Days
Race 2: #3 Beauty Infinity, #4 Nicconi County, #1 Celestial Colours, #8 Happy Fat Cat
Race 3: #2 Medic Elite, #11 Mighty Star, #6 Happy Jai Jai, #1 Beau Gosse
Race 4: #3 Copartner Prance, #7 Lapras, #9 Hayday, #5 Great Achiever
Race 5: #8 Super Eagle, #2 Ernest Feeling, #7 Multidarling, #5 Kilindini
Race 6: #1 Raging Blizzard, #2 Sugar Sugar, #9 Kyrus Dragon, #3 Watch Buddy

Bidding to add to an impressive collection of Hong Kong feature wins this season, James McDonald is wary of emerging threats to Lucky Sweynesse as the world’s top-rated sprinter attempts to win a second successive HK$13 million Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (10 March).

SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, March 10, 2024) 

The $165,400 Canberra Cup at Canberra Racecourse in Australia on Saturday evening is run at 1 1/4 miles, the perfect distance for a showdown between two principal runners in the field of 11 – Fawkner Park and So United.

Fawkner Park, the 3-1 favorite in early betting on Friday, won three consecutive races at distances ranging from 7 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles from late May to early July last year.