It’s obviously a step down from Sunday’s card at Sha Tin with three Group 1 races, but the nine-race card Wednesday at Happy Valley, which ends with a salty Class 2 handicap, is pretty good in its own right.
The nightcap, for horses rated 100-80 and to be run around one turn over 1,000 meters, about five furlongs, drew a dozen entrants, many of whom are very, very fast.
SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, April 24, 2022)
Race 1: #10 Double Show, #1 Rhapsody, #9 Brave Dreams, #8 Sight Hero
Race 2: #1 Fun N Glory, #4 Leslie, #10 One Voice, #7 Woodfire Bro
Race 3: #3 Golden Link, #5 Leading Fortune, #8 Precise Express, #4 Royal Bomb
Race 4: #9 Sparky Star, #4 Erimo, #10 Star Contact, #12 Casa Legend
Race 5: #1 Beauty Joy, #5 Beluga, #3 Savaquin, #2 My Sugar
Paul Lally:
R1: 9-8-7-2
R2: 5-1-2-6
R3: 9-3-8-1
R4: 8-11-5-6
R5: 10-8-4-12
R6: 1-3-9-4
R7: 2-4-1-10
R8: 6-1-7-4
R9: 6-5-10-9
Best Bet R5 10 Gorgeous Vitality
Longshot R4 8 Handsome Guys
Play R5 QQP 4-8-10
Mark McNamara:
R1 – 4.8.9.7
R2 – 5.1.2.11
R3 – 1.3.2.8
R4 – 1.11.5.8
R5 – 8.10.4.1
R6 – 1.3.10.4
R7 – 9.2.1.4
R8 – 6.7.1.4
R9 – 6.8.5.3
Not one, not two, not three, but four Class 3 handicaps headline the Wednesday card at Happy Valley as Hong Kong racing gears up for a multiple Group 1 card on Sunday.
In the nightcap, the last of nine races, the improving Packing Award should have a good chance to win his third race in a row. An Australian-bred who only has raced in Hong Kong, Packing Award hinted at moderate ability last season but has really come forward this term since being stretched from sprints to 1,650-meter races at Happy Valley.
Among his last four starts, the Australian gelding Fine Weather returned from a layoff of more than six months to win a six-furlong handicap from off the pace at Swan Hill Racecourse in February and led throughout a handicap at 1 1/2 miles at Mornington Racecourse on April 4.
Fine Weather can seemingly adapt to different race tactics and distances, which leaves him in contention for a third win this year in a handicap at 1 1/2 miles at Geelong Racecourse outside of Melbourne on Tuesday.
Rosacea, Welwal, and Junko won prep races for French Classics on Sunday at ParisLongchamp.
Rosacea, the most impressive of the three horses, captured the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte for fillies over one mile. Welwal was triumphant in the one-mile Prix de Fontainebleau over one mile for colts and geldings, while odds-on Junko had to work hard prevailing by a narrow margin in the Prix Noailles over 1 5/16-miles, the distance of the Prix du Jockey Club, France’s derby.
Geoglyph, beaten in his first two appearances in graded stakes, recorded an 11-1 upset in Sunday’s Grade 1 Japanese 2000 Guineas at 1 1/4 miles at Nakayama Racecourse, the first race in the country’s Triple Crown.
Ridden by Yuichi Fukunaga, Geoglyph closed from the middle of a field of 18 to win the $2.53 million Japanese 2000 Guineas by a length over 4-1 Equinox. Trainer Tatsuya Kimura swept the exacta. Do Deuce, the 2021 champion 2-year-old male in Japan, finished third, beaten 2 1/4 lengths.
