REGULAR Hong Kong racegoers will need to wait until the finale at Sha Tin for the feature race on the card – the six-furlong Class Two Sai Wan Shan Handicap (10.45am).
The contest promises to be a mouth-watering spectacle, featuring some of the best handicap sprinters in town up against a couple of potential future Group performers.
The likes of hat-trick-seeking flying machine Crimson Flash, the rejuvenated Young Champion, and the hugely talented Patch Of Stars will all have their supporters judging by their recent impressive form. However, they find themselves conceding weight to a pair of young and exciting gallopers.
Trainer Francis Lui is not a man to hype up his stable stars to the visiting media, but even he has compared the unbeaten Hot Delight to his former legend Golden Sixty, believing the son of Too Darn Hot is superior to his former superstar at the same stage of their careers.
The three-year-old has never looked in danger in his three races to date but now locks horns with an equally exciting galloper in BULB GENERAL, who represents the Jamie Richards yard.
The New Zealand-bred gelding was one of the leading lights for this season’s Classic Four-Year-Old Series after a dominant victory on his reappearance in September. However, he subsequently suffered a heartbreaking ligament injury that put his career on hold for five months.
Richards, whose stable is currently in top form with four winners in the past fortnight, has understandably had to be patient with his potential champion. There was plenty of encouragement from his comeback run, though, when he finished third behind Young Champion and Patch Of Stars in March, while importantly producing the fastest closing sectional times in the contest.
Now fully fit after a couple of recent trials, it looks all systems go for the son of Embellish, and the icing on the cake is the booking of Joao Moreira.
With his regular pilot, Zac Purton, unable to make the weight, Richards appears to have moved quickly to secure the “Magic Man” from the stable. From a favourable low draw in gate four, everything looks in his favour.
POINTER
Bulb General 10.45am Sha Tin
