There’s an ongoing ping pong match in Hong Kong these days with not even the weather men knowing which way the wind blows.
Still, life kinda plods on as well as could be expected despite the current conditions and with racing returning to the city track tonight.
One must be grateful for every crumb of moon cake made available these days. And though these race meetings held twice a week offer something to keep minds occupied, these are happening with a distinct lack of any real vibes... and a good night’s sleep.
The majority of the players in Hong Kong are far more interested in getting back into the game of Life.
The Brain Drain and exodus outta here continues with no one able to turn off the tap.
There are those, however, especially those with time on their side, who stay true to the thinking that out of chaos comes opportunity in, for example, investing in NFTs and the cryptocurrency world.
There are then those looking at possible next ports of call and cities with a pulse. Those who cannot take leaving for a break because of having to return to a mandatory 21 day quarantine, are forced to make the best of a lethargic situation and wait for Tinkerbell to fly in and sprinkle fairy dust “in your eyes of blue”.
This is why having those four hours of horse racing to pass the time while switching channels and, perhaps, spending maybe another hour looking at the form, helps make a sixteen ton day end faster.
However, when one thinks about the recent run of outs by red hot favourites like Nervous Witness and Fantastic Treasure- ironically, both trained by the great David Hayes- one realises that there’s no such thing as a certainty and studying form can be detonated by just damn bad luck.
There’s then the flip side to the racing coin. Last Saturday, for instance, saw an amazing form reversal by the optimistically named Incredible. We thought the horse had been retired.
Having moved from the stable of Manfred KL Man to Benno TP Yung, Incredible, after being tailed off almost last in every single one of its very many previous starts, was incredulously punted down from 42-1 to around 14s.
The galloper almost did cartwheels as he romped home with a somewhat baffled (bemused?) looking Keith Yeung on his back.
One can only put this incredible form reversal down to anything being able to happen in a lowly Class 5 race.
Below are the happy winning connections. Every picture tells a story. This one by Wallace Wan says so much...
This is why, we don’t touch the first few races at Shatin and, especially, Happy Valley. Expect the unexpected, we say, and let these races for horses in the lower grades be something for the city’s racing uncles to play on, play on, play on.
Tonight’s racing starts off with a Class 5 event- shudder- followed by four consecutive Class 4 races.
Like Chauncey Gardner, we, too, like to watch, and we’ll wait for the last three races to activate our betting accounts.
RACE 4
The first leg of the 6up at the city track and The Race That Stops Favourites Winning. It really is a voodoo race for favourites, so it’s going to be interesting to see what opens up as a favourite, becomes the banker in the exotic bet type and for whom the late money comes. It invariably gets messy.
To confuse the picture even more, the Fownes stable has three of the twelve runners entered for the race whereas David Ferraris has two runners.
It’s really a potluck and potty race. If not trying your luck in the 6up, we’d give this one a wide berth.
RACE 5
A Smile Like Yours (5)
Chiron (10)
Here Comes Ted (1)
RACE 6
Wowser! Douglas Whyte has actually booked the Zac Attack for a ride- top weight Harmony Fire (1)! Though a wonderfully honest galloper who’s all heart, he’s a little fella and we’re really unsure if he can carry the weight and whether even the strength of The Influencer can get the him first past the post.
The overnight favourite, we’d be reluctantly taking Harmony Fire to be doused. Heart Conquered (8) might be a smarter betting proposition.
RACE 7
An extremely wide open race with every runner having pluses and minuses and maybe even sinuses.
Sunshine Warrior (7)
Sunny Star (12)
Beluga (9)
Solar Wai Wai (5)
RACE 8
We have to include Wine And Wine(4) in our selections purely because we would dearly love to see apprentice Victor Wong ride his first winner of the season. The runner is not without a chance- a minor one.
Above him are California Cible (5), Hong Kong Bet (2), Classic Posh (1) and Jazz Angel (9).
RACE 9
Fa Fa (2)
King’s Capital (5)
Hall Of Champ (1)
The Anomaly (10)
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