HAPPY VALLEY SELECTIONS
(Wednesday, 27 November, 2019)

Gentle Breeze has played a pivotal role in jockey Matt Chadwick’s season in Hong Kong this fall.

Chadwick has won six races since the season began in early September, including two consecutive races on Gentle Breeze, a 5-year-old Australian-bred gelding.

The partnership will have a prominent role in Wednesday’s $185,251 St. Andrew’s Challenge Quaich at Happy Valley Racecourse. The five-furlong turf race is run on the same course and distance as Gentle Breeze’s wins on Sept. 25 and Nov. 6.

Suave Richard cleaved to the fence under jockey Oisin Murphy and then cut down 3-year-old filly Curren Bouquetd’or to win the Group 1, $5.25 million Japan Cup by three-quarters of a length Sunday at Tokyo Racecourse.

Champions Way will try to bounce back from a disappointing season’s debut when he starts Sunday at Sha Tin in the featured Chevalier Cup, a Class 1 handicap over about one mile that drew a field of 14.

Champions Way, a 4-year-old on the Southern Hemisphere breeding calendar, won a remarkable five races in a row last racing season to start his Hong Kong career and wound up a super successful campaign with six wins and a second in seven races, capping his season with a Group 3 victory in the Lion Rock Trophy Stakes.

Brett Davis – Selections

R1 – 10-12-1-8

R2 – 2-8-1-9

R3 – 4-6-5-1

R4 – 14-11-8-3

R5 – 7-6-11-1

R6 – 7-14-10-11

R7 – 6-2-14-13

R8 – 7-9-2-4

R9 – 8-1-2-4

R10 – 1-11-4-7

Best – R4 n14   Little General  

Longshot – R6 n7   Joyful Heart

Best Play – R8   Quin   7 / 2,9

Paul Lally:

R1 7-3-8-4

R2 2-4-5-9

R3 1-4-6-5

R4 11-14-1-3

R5 7-6-9-1

R6 9-5-8-10

R7 14-2-3-1

R8 1-7-2-3

R9 2-1-8-3

Almond Eye won the 2018 Japan Cup by nearly two lengths and would have been heavily favored to repeat in the race, but she is going to Hong Kong for the Dec. 8 Hong Kong Cup, leaving Sunday’s Japan Cup open for business.

Fifteen horses, none from out of the country, are expected for this renewal of the Group 1, $5.25 million Japan Cup, a 1 1/2-mile grass race run around left-handed turns at expansive Tokyo Racecourse.

SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Saturday, 23 November, 2019)

It’s important to read the fine print and stay attuned to what words actually mean when dealing with racing jurisdictions talking about who might and might not run in their big races. For instance, there were headlines all over the racing world Wednesday when the Hong Kong Jockey Club released lists of names for its four international Group 1 races on Dec. 8 and Magical showed up in the 1 1/4-mile Hong Kong Cup.

Brett Davis – Selections

R1 – 10-6-8-5
R2 – 10-7-1-6
R3 – 3-1-10-4
R4 – 10-4-9-1
R5 – 1-4-3-5
R6 – 1-12-10-2
R7 – 3-9-10-4
R8 – 1-7-5-4
R9 – 11-1-6-5

Best – R4 n10 Righteous Mate
Longshot – R1 n10 Hidden Spirit
Best Play – R1 Q/Qp 5,6,8,10

Andrew Le Jeune:

R1: 5-2-8-1
R2: 8-7-1-10
R3: 3-1-2-10
R4: 9-10-11-3
R5: 1-6-2-4
R6: 12-2-10-8
R7: 3-12-10-6
R8: 10-1-3-7
R9: 1-11-2-7

The Happy Valley race card of Nov. 13 was canceled because Hong Kong Jockey Club officials had concerns regarding the transport of employees and racegoers to and from the course during widespread street protests in Hong Kong. The civil unrest, if anything, has increased in volume and intensity over the last week, but as of Tuesday, the Nov. 20 races at Happy Valley still were on.

The nine-race card begins at 5:45 a.m. Eastern with the highest-class offering on the card, race 7, scheduled for 8:50 a.m. Eastern.