Pablosky, a 5-year-old Irish-bred gelding who won a handicap in April, is the 133-pound highweight in Wednesday’s $161,290 Yau Oi Handicap at six furlongs on turf at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong.
The Yau Oi Handicap is the eighth and final race on the first night of racing at Happy Valley of the 2016-17 Hong Kong racing season. The Yau Oi Handicap is the richest race on the program and drew a field of 12.
It has been five years since the wonderful filly Danedream won the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden as a 3-year-old filly facing older males, and perhaps Serienholde can reprise Danedream’s first of two consecutive wins in the race on Sunday at Baden-Baden Racecourse in Germany.
Limato, a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita in November, will start favored in Saturday’s $384,028 32Red Sprint Cup at Haydock Park in England.
The Group 1 race at six furlongs on turf could be Limato’s final start before the BC Turf Sprint on Nov. 5. Trainer Henry Candy has mentioned the California race as a late-season goal for the 4-year-old Limato.
Racing is booming in Hong Kong, where the 2016-17 season begins on Saturday at Sha Tin Racecourse.
During the 2015-16 season that ended in July, handle reached approximately $13.6 billion on 83 days of racing, the second-highest figure in history. Attendance surpassed 2.04 million, the fourth consecutive year in which crowds went past 2 million on the circuit’s two tracks – Happy Valley, which runs on Wednesday evenings, and Sha Tin, which operates a higher-profile program primarily on Sunday afternoons.
Andrew Hawkins' selections for Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016, at Sha Tin.
Race 1
#2 Happy Sound
#4 Silver Gatsby
#10 Seasons King
Race 2
#8 Glory Sunshine
#10 Plain Blue Banner
#1 Hay Go Lucky
Race 3
#5 Blizzard
#6 Lucky Year
#7 Born In China
Race 4
#6 C P Power
#10 Peace Combination
#7 Perpetual Joyance
Race 5
#4 Team Sweet
#3 Divine Diya
#1 Run Forrest
Black Heart Bart confirmed his status as one of Australia’s top sprinters with a victory in Saturday’s $378,150 Memsie Stakes at Caulfield Racecourse against a field that included Prince of Penzance, the winner of the famous Melbourne Cup last November.
Prince of Penzance finished 11th of 12 in the seven-furlong race, a shorter distance than the marathons at which he excels.
The Memsie Stakes was the first Group 1 race of the 2016-17 Australian season.
Siljan’s Saga can become the first horse in nine years to win consecutive runnings of the $224,520 Grand Prix de Deauville when she faces three male rivals in the turf marathon on Sunday at Deauville Racecourse in France.
A 5-year-old mare, Siljan’s Saga is winless in six starts since the 2015 Grand Prix de Deauville, a span that includes an eighth-place finish in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last October. More recently, Siljan’s Saga was third against males in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud on July 3.
Prince of Penzance, the upset winner of the Melbourne Cup last November at 100-1, will start as a longshot in Saturday’s Memsie Stakes at Caulfield Racecourse in Australia, the first start of a spring campaign geared toward the Melbourne Cup on Nov. 1.
Prince of Penzance will be ridden for the first time by Harry Coffey, a replacement for Michelle Payne. Last year, Payne made history as the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup. She was injured in a spill in May and has yet to return to riding.
