Le Terroir has won four of his last five starts in six-furlong races at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong, rising rapidly through the handicap ratings utilized on that circuit.
Back in April, when Le Terroir won for the first time in his 10th start, he raced at a modest ratings mark of 47. When Le Terroir starts in Wednesday’s $185,234 Sea Eagle Handicap, he will race from a level of 79.
SHA TIN, Hong Kong – Glory Vase got a glorious trip under Joao Moreira and won the $2.55 million Hong Kong Vase to kick off the Group 1 action on the Hong Kong International Races program Sunday at Sha Tin.
Moreira, winning for the third time in the card’s first four races, settled Glory Vase in seventh much of the trip, guided him deftly through narrow passageways around the far turn and into the homestretch, dove to the inside when a path failed to open to his outside, and swooped past heavily favored Exultant at the furlong grounds to gallop home by 3 1/2 lengths.
SHA TIN, Hong Kong – Beat the Clock was up just in time to win his first Hong Kong Sprint after finishing third in the race last year.
Trainer John Size, a sprint master, went tick-tock in the Group 1, $2.55 million Sprint, with Hot King Prawn battling bravely to finish second. Jockey Joao Moreira? He rang the big chime, capturing his second Group 1 on the card, following Glory Vase’s Hong Kong Vase triumph, and winning four of the first five races Sunday at Sha Tin.
SHA TIN, Hong Kong – Superstar Japanese filly Almond Eye picked a bad time to get a little sick and had to miss the Hong Kong Cup, but the Cup, anchor of the Hong Kong International race card, delivered a feverish finish in her absence.
The Japanese horse Win Bright is no Almond Eye, but Sunday at Sha Tin he was strong, brave, and a head better than Magic Wand, the world-traveling Ireland-based filly who lost little in defeat.
Brett Davis – Selections
R1 – 7-8-6-1
R2 – 5-2-4-10
R3 – 3-4-10-2
R4 – 1-2-10-7
R5 – 14-11-1-13
R6 – 9-8-2-12
R7 – 1-2-4-6
R8 – 8-6-7-1
R9 – 10-7-1-2
R10 – 5-4-7-1
Best – R9 n10 Mr Croissant
Longshot – R2 n5 Vincy
Best Play – R7 Quin 1 / 2,6
Tom Wood:
SELECTIONS:
R1: 1 – 7 – 3 – 8
R2: 6 – 10 – 8 – 14
R3: 4 – 8 – 10 – 14
R4: 2 – 1 – 10 – 13
HONG KONG – For much of the last two years, Beauty Generation’s camp had no need to hunt excuses. Now they find themselves scrambling for answers.
The questions go like this: Do consecutive losses following a 10-race winning streak that included back-to-back victories in the Hong Kong Mile and the highest international rating ever achieved by a Hong Kong horse signify the end of Beauty Generation’s dominance? Does Beauty Generation still have the psychological fire smoldering alongside physical flame to win the Group 1, $3.15 million HK Mile for the third year in a row Sunday?
HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Cup, the Group 1, $3.58 million anchor of the Hong Kong International Races on Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse, was supposed to be the playground of superstar Japanese filly Almond Eye, who got as far as quarantine in Japan before a brief fever scrapped Hong Kong travel plans. Her absence leaves the Cup a shell of the race it might have been. Only eight horses are slated to start; none will be confused with Almond Eye.
HONG KONG – Sprinters and milers have historically ruled Hong Kong racing, and it’s mainly been European shippers winning the 1 1/2-mile Hong Kong Vase, to be run Sunday on the Hong Kong International Races program at Sha Tin.
Only twice since 2000 has a Hong Kong-based horse won the Vase, but one of those occasions came when Exultant won in 2018, and Exultant probably is a better horse now than then.
“Exultant is on the up,” trainer Tony Cruz said. “He’s rising, still improving, and this is his prime. I’ve never seen him so well.”
