Paul Lally:
R1: 4-7-11-3
R2: 4-2-6-3
R3: 5-9-2-10
R4: 3-1-2-6
R5: 3-5-4-8
R6: 10-6-7-12
R7: 14-8-1-6
R8: 4-8-9-1
R9: 5-11-3-1
R10: 1-3-6-2
R11: 2-8-12-4
Best Bet: R8 N4 California Rad
Longshot: R4 N3 Galactic
Play R8: QQP 4-8-9
Tom Wood:
R1: 4-7-11-3
R2: 4-3-6-1
R3: 2-5-9-10
R4: 3-12-6-1
R5: 5-3-4-2
R6: 10-3-7-1
R7: 8-6-1-14
R8: 4-3-5-1
R9: 11-5-3-2
R10: 3-5-1-2
R11: 2-4-12-1
Beauty Smile, a 4-year-old with some upside, sits at the bottom of the ratings but could come out on top of the Class 1 Chinese New Year Cup Handicap on Sunday at Sha Tin.
This 1,400-meter race, featured on an 11-race card two days card coming two days after the actual Chinese New Year, is for horses rated 110-85 and drew nine entrants. Beauty Smile, rated 86, is one of three in the race carrying just 113 pounds, 20 fewer than top-rated Fat Turtle.
Art Cadeau has never been worse than second in nine career starts in Australia, a consistent record that can serve the gelding well in Sunday’s $116,370 Newhaven Park Country Championship qualifier at Nowra Racecourse.
A top-two finish in the seven-furlong handicap will earn Art Cadeau a berth in the $387,850 Country Championship final at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on April 3. There are eight qualifying races run at tracks throughout the state of New South Wales this weekend through March 21.
With help from race dynamics, Zakouski beat Lord Glitters on Thursday at Meydan in the Group 2, $163,000 Al Rashidiya Stakes.
Zakouski was home by three-quarters of a length as pacesetting Court House won a place photo with Lord Glitters in this 1,800-meter (about 1 1/8 miles) turf contest.
Danluca is a 6-year-old Australian-bred gelding who has excelled in long-distance handicaps in that country this year.
Danluca was second by a nose in a handicap at 1 1/2 miles at Mornington Racecourse on Jan. 1, and won a handicap at the same distance at Moe Racecourse on Jan. 20, ending a six-race losing streak.
Danluca has won 3 of 25 starts in a career that began in late 2017, and has never won consecutive starts. The opportunity is present in a handicap at 1 3/8 miles at Sale Racecourse in the state of Victoria on Friday.
Joao Moreira has extended his lead in the Hong Kong jockeys’ premiership with another display of dominance, notching a Happy Valley treble to lead reigning champion Zac Purton by 30 winners – 89 to 59.
Marching relentlessly to a fourth Hong Kong jockeys’ crown, Moreira again snared riding honours with victory on Daily Beauty and Kurpany for Caspar Fownes before securing the meeting finale on Equaletta Blitz for Jimmy Ting.
With 43 meetings left in the season, Moreira is on target to challenge the Hong Kong record he set in 2016/17 of 170 wins.
Judging from the results of major sprint stakes in Australia in October and November, Bivouac is better than Nature Strip, at least at six furlongs.
Bivouac was second in the $10.7 million Everest Stakes at six furlongs at Royal Randwick in Sydney in October, with Nature Strip seventh of 12. In the Group 1 VRC Classic at the same distance at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne on Nov. 7, Bivouac and Nature Strip were first and second, separated by 3 1/4 lengths in a race worth $1.08 million.
Wild and Ready and jockey Ron Stewart have been an unbeatable team in minor races in Australia in the last few months.
Wild and Ready won a maiden race in her fourth start at Ipswich Racecourse on Christmas Eve, the first time Stewart was aboard. Wild And Ready finished sixth in a handicap at Doomben on Jan. 7 when ridden by Jim Byrne, but rebounded to win a handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs at Eagle Farm on Jan. 21 with Stewart back aboard.
