Paul Lally:
R1 8-1-3-5
R2 5-6-12-3
R3 8-7-2-1
R4 6-1-4-3
R5 5-6-9-12
R6 6-12-1-7
R7 5-9-3-10
R8 7-3-2-10
R9 2-13-9-14
R10 2-6-12-3
Best Bet R9 N2 My Sugar
Longshot R2 N5 Love Me more
Play R9 QQP 2-9-13
Andrew Le Jeune:
R1: 2-1-8-5
R2: 7-12-6-3
R3: 6-8-1-10
R4: 3-1-5-6
R5: 7-5-9-12
R6: 12-1-11-6
R7: 9-5-8-10
R8: 7-3-10-6
R9: 9-2-4-13
R10: 6-2-12-1
A pair of Group 3 handicaps highlight the best card of the young Hong Kong racing season, Sunday’s 10-race program at Sha Tin.
Race 6 is the Premier Bowl Handicap over 1,200 meters, which drew 12 entrants, and race 8 is the 1,600-meter Sha Tin Trophy Handicap, which also lured a dozen intended runners.
The races are stepping-stones toward the Hong Kong International Races in December. The Premier Bowl leads to the Hong Kong Sprint, the Sha Tin Trophy toward the Hong Kong Mile, and there are horses in both spots who could have a say in those Group 1s.
Sodashi, the rare white Thoroughbred, has a race record as stunning as her looks.
Sodashi has won 6 of 7 starts in Japan, where she was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2020. Sodashi is a two-time graded stakes winner this year with an excellent chance for the 3-year-old filly title if she runs well in Sunday’s Grade 1 Shuka Sho at Hanshin Racecourse.
Someone will have a losing streak end in Sunday’s Horsham Cup at Horsham Racecourse in Australia.
None of the 10 runners won their last starts, notably Kings Full, the expected 2-1 favorite who is winless in 14 starts in the last 18 months. But two second-place finishes in his most recent races gives Kings Full every chance to reverse that trend in the Horsham Cup at 1 5/16 miles.
They saved the best for last in the European mile division this year.
The Group 1, $1.1 million Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Saturday on Champions Day at Ascot drew a blockbuster field likely stronger top to bottom than what the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile will attract next month, and at the heart of it is a first matchup between Palace Pier and Baaeed.
A start Saturday at Ascot Racecourse has been an autumn goal for Mishriff since the beginning of his 2021 campaign. For Adayar, this race came into focus less than two weeks ago, but it’s Adayar who could prove the strongest threat to Mishriff in the Group 1, $1.64 million Champion Stakes.
Wide trips have been a recent curse for the well-bred gelding Ironclad, who starts in Friday’s Murray Bridge Gold Cup at Murray Bridge Racecourse outside of Adelaide, Australia.
Ironclad was ninth and 10th in stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs and seven furlongs in August and September after wide trips. A longer race in the one-mile Murray Bridge Gold Cup could help reverse that trend, even though Ironclad will start from the outside in a field of 18.
From a Southern Hemisphere 3-year-old racing against older horses for the first time to an 8-year-old gelding with blazing speed, half of the 12-horse field in Saturday’s $11.05 million Everest Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Australia have the credentials to win the world’s richest sprint.
Nature Strip, fourth in 2019 and seventh last year, was the 3-1 favorite for the six-furlong race as of Thursday, a slight choice over 7-2 Classique Legend, the 2020 winner. Eduardo, the 8-year-old speedster who was 11th last year, was 5-1.
Universal Lady had a two-race winning streak end with a second-place finish in a six-furlong handicap at Benalla Racecourse on Sept. 26.
The streak may have only been interrupted. Universal Lady resumes racing in a five-furlong handicap at Warrnambool Racecourse, west of Melbourne, on Thursday, the same distance as her two wins on the synthetic track at Ballarat Racecourse in August.
