The slight weight advantage Stockman has over a few of his rivals in Monday’s TAB Handicap at Warwick Farm Racecourse in Sydney, Australia may be the difference in the race at about 1 5/16 miles on turf.

Stockman, a 3-year-old Southern Hemisphere gelding, has won three of his last four starts since returning from a five-month break in April. Trained at Warwick Farm by Joseph Pride, Stockman has won his last two starts – a handicap at a mile at Wyong Racecourse on May 13 and a more lucrative handicap at 1 1/4 miles at Royal Randwick on May 23.

Kameko gave jockey Oisin Murphy his first classic-race win in England as heavily favored Pinatubo suffered his first defeat finishing third in the Group 1 English 2000 Guineas on Saturday at Newmarket.

Glorious Spectrum can land his first Hong Kong win in the featured 10^th race Sunday at Sha Tin.

The Australian-bred 5-year-old, imported after racing two seasons in Italy, had two wins and a second during the 2018-2019 Hong Kong season and has two more runner-up finishes from three races during his 2019-2020 campaign. He lost by a nose May 24 at Sha Tin racing at this Class 2 handicap level and over this same 1,400-meter distance, and Glorious Spectrum is well overdue for a breakthrough.

Three weeks after she thumped fillies and mares in the Grade 1 Victoria Mile at Tokyo Racecourse, Almond Eye will be an odds-on favorite to win Sunday’s Grade 1 Yasuda Kinen at a mile at the same venue against males.

The lads may not stand a chance.

A good turf course may be what the veteran gelding Guizot needs to end a four-race losing streak and win the Swan Hill Cup for the first time. Sunday’s $78,412 Swan Hill Cup is a race for milers in Australia.

Guizot, a 7-year-old Irish-bred, was sixth in the 2018 Swan Hill Cup and second by a head in the race last year. The Swan Hill Cup is the signature race at Swan Hill Racecourse, located well north of Melbourne in the Australian interior.

Quadrilateral, who won all three of her 2-year-old starts, including the Group 1 Fillies Mile, is favored over Millisle and Love in the Group 1 English 1000 Guineas on Sunday at Newmarket.

Trained by Roger Charlton for her breeder, Khalid Abdullah, Quadrilateral showed her quality second time out last year winning a conditions race at Newbury by nine lengths. That victory propelled the daughter of Frankel into the Fillies Mile, run like the 1000 Guineas over a straight mile at Newmarket, where she was a head better than Powerful Breeze, who’s not part of Sunday’s field.

Ghaiyyath was going to be heavily favored and tough to beat in the Sheema Classic, a race that was canceled because of coronavirus, but instead of winning a late March Group 1 in Dubai, he conquered a Group 1 in early June at Newmarket, leading from start to finish in the Coronation Cup.

Owner Peter Brant is in action Saturday with Chad Brown-trained horses at Belmont Park, but he also has the early favorite Flighty Lady in the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre at Lyon Parilly in France.

There’s no disputing Pinatubo was a sensational 2-year-old of 2019, but what kind of 3-year-old he’ll be in 2020 will become more apparent Saturday at Newmarket, where Pinatubo starts as the heavy favorite in the Group 1 English 2000 Guineas.

Pinatubo hasn’t scared anyone away, with 14 rivals set to face him in this straight-course mile, the first classic race in the COVID-19-delayed English flat season.

SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, June 7, 2020)