Four course specialists – Bold Stitch, Cheerful Jet, Fortune Booth, and Super Hoppy – may hold an advantage in the $248,439 Big Wave Bay Handicap at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong on Wednesday, the first evening of racing at the city track for the 2018-19 season.
Hong Kong opened its season last weekend at Sha Tin Racecourse, which is on the edge of the city. The Big Wave Bay Handicap is run at six furlongs on turf and is the last of eight races.
HAPPY VALLEY SELECTIONS
(Wednesday, September 5, 2018)
RACE 1: #3 My Blessing, #6 Celebration, #4 Mi Blanco, #8 Eastern Prowess
RACE 2: #3 Showing Character, #8 Snowhooves, #2 Rookie Star, #5 Young Dreamer
RACE 3: #2 Mr Right, #5 Country Star, #8 Pearly Treasure, #10 Raichu
RACE 4: #4 Bundle Of Energy, #8 Captain Boss, #10 Universal Go Go, #5 Flying Force
RACE 5: #1 King's Man, #4 All You Know, #8 The Sylph, #5 Starlit Knight
SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, Sept. 2)
R1: 1-5-3-2
R2: 2-8-4-1
R3: 7-4-5-2
R4: 8-12-10-5
R5: 4-11-2-1
R6: 7-6-1-2
R7: 5-1-2-6
R8: 9-4-8-2
R9: 10-1-11-6
R10: 1-3-13-7
Best Bet – R1: #1 Super Eighteen
Longshot – R5: #2 Romantic Bonanza
Best Play – R4: Trio 8/2,5,10,12
R1: 3-6-2-4
R2: 8-10-9-5
R3: 7-5-2-1
R4: 10-8-4-7
R5: 4-11-7-1
During the new Hong Kong racing season that begins Sunday at Sha Tin, some of the horses will be shipping in from mainland China, while the circuit’s leading rider now is plying his trade in Japan.
Conghua Racecourse and Training Center, built and operated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, opened this summer in the Guangzhou District of Guangdong Province, a couple hours north of Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong. The facility, the first racetrack on the mainland, can house as many as 1,500 horses, and the HKJC hopes to host a showcase day of racing there, sans betting, in March.
SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, September 2, 2018)
RACE 1: #4 Triumphant Jewel, #2 Lightning Steed, #6 Happy Tour, #3 Victory Power
RACE 2: #7 Lucky Storm, #1 Triumphant Light, #8 Sports Master, #10 The Show
RACE 3: #4 Fabulous One, #5 Jumbo Luck, #2 Winner's Way, #1 Southern Legend
RACE 4: #8 Victor Emperor, #4 Multimax, #9 Regency Honey, #12 Corre Rapido
For the first time this year, Alpha Delphini was on the winning end of a photo in Friday’s Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York Racecourse in England. But it took several minutes for judges to determine that 40-1 Alpha Delphini had finished the narrowest of noses in front of 14-1 Mabs Cross in the five-furlong race on a straightaway course.
If Alpha Centauri is the most exciting 3-year-old filly in Europe, Sea Of Class is second by a scant nose.
Ridden from the back of the pack by James Doyle like there was no way she could lose, Sea Of Class made short work Thursday at York Racecourse of seven foes, winning the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks by 2 1/4 lengths over Coronet.
After losing her career debut in April by a neck, Sea Of Class has won four in a row. She captured the Group 1 Irish Oaks last out in her group-stakes debut and proved an even more definitive winner Thursday.
Roaring Lion confirmed his status as Europe’s leading 3-year-old male, and one of the finest horses in training, with his second consecutive Group 1 win against older horses in Wednesday’s $1.27 million Juddmonte International at York Racecourse in England.
Ridden by Oisin Murphy, Roaring Lion (3-1) easily beat Poet’s Word, the dominant older male in England this summer, by 3 1/4 lengths in the race at 1 1/4 miles. Poet’s Word, the 8-5 favorite, encountered trouble with three furlongs to go and could not threaten the winner.
Sea of Class made her fourth start in the Irish Oaks on July 21, and her group stakes debut simultaneously served as her Group 1 stakes debut. The climb from a listed race at Newbury to the top level is supposed to be steep, but Sea Of Class scaled those heights comfortably. She beat Forever Together by a neck to win the Irish Oaks, one of those races where the bare margin of victory understated the performance gap between the two horses.
Poet’s Word, the dominant older male in England this summer, and Roaring Lion, one of the country’s top 3-year-olds, meet for the first time in Wednesday’s Group 1 Juddmonte International at York Racecourse.
The $1.27 million race has widespread ramifications for the remainder of the European season as well as the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.
