SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Friday, October 01, 2021)

Marshall Dillon will take charge of a handicap at 5 1/2 furlongs from the start at Wyong Racecourse in Australia on Thursday, and is likely to show the speed that has led to top three finishes in all five of his career starts.

The concern for trainer Matthew Dunn and jockey Tommy Berry is whether Marshall Dillon can sustain his early advantage through the race.

St Mark’s Basilica has been retired to stud, cutting short a career that already had made him one of the three highest-rated horses in the world.

Daysan is a 5-year-old Kentucky-bred gelding by Temple City who began his career in England but is thriving in Australia these days.

Daysan has won his last two starts in handicaps – at distances of 1 1/4 miles at Hawkesbury on Aug. 31 and at 1 7/16 miles on Sept. 18 at Newcastle. Daysan has won 2 of 3 starts in Australia.

In the two recent wins, Daysan closed from off the pace to take the lead late, suggesting a start in a handicap at 1 1/2 miles on turf on the Kensington course at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on Wednesday will be a suitable trip.

Paul Lally:

R1 3-9-1-10
R2 12-1-8-10
R3 8-5-6-1
R4 2-6-1-3
R5 7-4-6-10
R6 6-7-3-13
R7 3-8-5-2
R8 5-3-8-1
R9 3-4-12-14
R10 1-5-9-10

Best Bet R5 N7 Viva Hunter
Longshot R2 N12 Super Red Dragon
Play R5 QQP 4-6-7

Andrew Le Jeune:

R1: 2-7-1-4
R2: 1-10-6-8
R3: 8-1-5-4
R4: 4-8-2-3
R5: 7-5-4-2
R6: 2-13-6-7
R7: 2-3-8-6
R8: 5-1-3-8
R9: 12-4-14-5
R10: 5-1-10-8

The most important 1 1/2-mile race in Europe, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, comes next Sunday, Oct. 3, but this Sunday, Cologne Racecourse hosts one of the most important 1 1/2-mile races in Germany, the Group 1 Preis von Europa.

Germany’s leading 1 1/2-mile horse, Torquator Tasso, is headed for the Arc after a convincing Sept. 4 victory at Baden-Baden in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden, but Sisfahan, who was second in the Grosser Preis von Baden, meets English invader Alpinista in Sunday’s contest.

Sky Darci, winner of the 2021 Hong Kong Derby, makes his 2021-22 season’s debut Sunday at Sha Tin in the Group 3, $480,000 Celebration Cup Handicap.

Sky Darci carries 120 pounds, 13 fewer than his top-rated 9-year-old stablemate, Southern Legend, and breaks from post 3 under Joao Moreira in the 1,400-meter Celebration Cup. The Hong Kong Derby is a 2,000-meter race but Sky Darci has won over a distance as short as 1,200 meters.

Emissary was a 40-1 outsider when he beat one rival in a field of 16 in the Group 1 English Derby at Epsom Racecourse in July 2020.

More than a year later, Emissary is on the other side of the world, with a different status in racing. Sunday, Emissary will be favored to win his second start in Australia, and third race of his career, in the Benalla Cup at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Benalla Racecourse.

The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 5 gained a potential international starter when Hello You recorded a mild upset in Friday’s Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at seven furlongs at Newmarket in England.

Hello You (who paid $15.40 in American pools) earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf with a first career stakes win in the $122,900 Rockfel Stakes.

Short-priced favorites are expected to dominate Group 1 Australian races in Melbourne and Sydney on Saturday.

Zaaki, the future-book favorite for the Cox Plate on Oct. 23, will be odds-on to win his fifth stakes of 2021 in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes at 1 1/8 miles against only four rivals at Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne.