HAPPY VALLEY SELECTIONS
(Wednesday, October 3, 2018)
RACE 1: #8 Jolly Amber, #6 Kwaichung Brothers, #7 Triumphal Win, #10 Little Fantasy
RACE 2: #1 Giant Turtle, #4 Sky Melody, #6 Faithful Trinity, #2 Cheerful Star
RACE 3: #2 Impeccable Fellow, #4 Bundle Of Energy, #8 Captain Boss, #1 Electric Lightning
RACE 4: #5 Thou Shall Sing, #2 Powermax, #10 Fox Cheunger, #1 Mickey Rich
The $249,169 Kwoon Chung Bus Cup at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong on Wednesday lacks a standout in a field of 12.
There are several runners seeking to end losing streaks, led by Packing Dragon, Sichuan Dar and Stimulation, who have faced tougher fields in recent starts.
Nope – Beauty Generation had no rust to shake off.
The 2017-2018 Hong Kong Horse of the Year looked like he might be even better for the 2018-2019 season, winning the Group 3 Celebration Cup on Monday at Sha Tin in a performance visually impressive and fast on the clock.
Fine Needle won his second Grade 1 sprint in Japan this year in Sunday’s $1,891,011 Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse and is expected to have his next start in Kentucky or Hong Kong later this fall.
Fine Needle, owned by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing, earned a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3. Fine Needle is also a candidate for the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin in December, Godolphin officials said after the race.
Brett Davis
R1 – 9-3-6-7
R2 – 8-3-1-12
R3 – 10-2-6-3
R4 – 12-13-8-4
R5 – 14-9-8-6
R6 – 10-7-13-12
R7 – 3-1-2-4
R8 – 11-5-1-8
R9 – 7-5-10-3
R10 – 10-3-2-4
Best Bet – R4 N12 Shining On
Longshot – R6 No10 Bigwood
Best Play – Q/Qp R6 7,10,13
Paul Lally
R1 – 3-9-6-7
R2 – 3-1-9-10
R3 – 3-7-8-2
R4 – 4-13-7-9
R5 – 4-14-9-5
R6 – 5-4-7-12
R7 – 1-3-6-2
R8 – 8-5-11-1
R9 – 7-5-1-10
R10 – 4-12-3-10
Beauty Generation was Hong Kong’s horse of the year during the 2017-18 racing season and is set to begin his next campaign Monday at Sha Tin in the Group 3, $415,171 Celebration Cup Handicap.
This is the same race that set Beauty Generation on a path to win the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile and the Group 1 Champion’s Mile last season, but while Beauty Generation was a comeback winner in 2017, both trainer John Moore and jockey Zac Purton spoke this week as if Beauty Generation would probably need this race to shake off rust.
Aidan O’Brien had an afternoon to remember Saturday at Newmarket in England – but then he has had plenty of those during his remarkable career.
His stable in Ireland clearly having broken the hold of a midsummer virus, O’Brien won all three Group races for 2-year-olds on the Newmarket card, starting by running one-two-three in the Group 2 Royal Lodge, where Mohawk got the money, and going on to capture the Group 1 Cheveley Park with Fairyland and the Group 1 Middle Park with Ten Sovereigns.
Red Falx won the Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse in 2017 for the second consecutive year en route to being named Japan’s champion sprinter or miler for that season. If he wins the same race for a record third time Sunday, Red Falx must overcome an outside post in a field of 16 in the six-furlong turf race.
The $1,891,011 Sprinters Stakes is the top six-furlong race of the autumn in Japan and has drawn an international runner in Lucky Bubbles, the champion sprinter in Hong Kong in the 2016-17 season.
Just Wonderful won her second group stakes in her last three starts, and largely erased the disappointment of a recent seventh-place finish at that level, with a win in Friday’s Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse in England.
Just Wonderful earned a fees-paid berth for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2 with the win. She is trained by Aidan O’Brien, who has never won the Juvenile Fillies Turf but has finished second twice.
The Royal Lodge Stakes is a Group 2 race for 2-year-olds that has produced some high-end Group 1 horses. Roaring Lion won it last year and has emerged as one of Europe’s best runners of 2018, and the legendary Frankel captured the 2010 edition.
