The Wolf is Coming to Win for Shum
RACING in Hong Kong reverts to Saturday from Sunday this weekend for an 11-race programme at Sha Tin and features the Class Two Ivy Handicap (9.05am) over six furlongs.
With the Christmas festivities fast approaching, it will be paramount for many racegoers to top up their balances to pay for the turkey and presents under the Christmas tree next week.
For regular racing fans who were hoping that Christmas would come early when arriving at Happy Valley on Wednesday as results sent bettors home with their tails between their legs.
There were numerous shock results with none of the favourites obliging in nine races and champion jockey Zac Purton having a day to forget; it turned out more like the famous movie ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’.
Hopefully, the gods of fortune will smile on racegoers on Saturday, and it could pay to follow the Danny Shum stable who are in the form of their lives.
Shum, who shared the headlines with his champion Romantic Warrior when winning the LONGINES HKIR Cup last Sunday, has saddled five winners so far this month and now finds himself just one winner behind trainers’ championship leaders, Mark Newnham and Caspar Fownes, with 24 wins.
Stable hope GORGEOUS WIN lines up in the main event, the Ivy Handicap (9.05am), and will be seeking to successfully follow up his recent triumph on the all-weather surface, where he had rivals Bottomuptogether and Invincible Shield behind.
This is obviously a different surface, but the former five-time course-and-distance winner always springs to life at this time of year, with a form record in December and January over the last two seasons reading 221 and 121, and he is worth taking a chance with to surprise again.
Stable companion WOLF COMING is another who will start at fancy odds, coming up against smart and progressive Sky Joy and others in the Spruce Handicap (9.40am) over seven furlongs.
The former two-time winner when known as Qetaifan and trained by Andrew Balding in the UK, caught the eye on only his third run in Hong Kong when racing very wide throughout, but still closing strongly to finish seventh behind Sky Joy last month.
His closing sectional times were the fastest in the contest, and with blinkers equipped again and coming from a better draw, he is capable of giving Shum a day to remember.
POINTERS
Gorgeous Win (e/w) 9.05am Sha Tin
Wolf Coming (e/w) 9.40am Sha Tin