THE GURU (20/11/11)
- The FastTracker
- Nov 20, 2011
- 3 min read
Prepare for a day of great racing and high drama at Shatin on Sunday!
Sunday’s racing at Shatin is a tremendous card full of winners and intrigue.
We also see the return to Hong Kong of French whiz kid Maxime Guyon, a jockey so popular in Hong Kong with the racing public, trainers and winners.
Though in Hong Kong to mainly ride the brilliant Ambitious Dragon in the Cathay Pacific Classic Mile, Guyon has eight other rides and with the odds being that he will return to France on Sunday night with 2-3 winners.
The card is sprinkled with short-priced favourites and which might be worth taking on.
Two of these are from the John Size stable- Supreme Jewellery and Entrapment- both of which were very big flops when also favourites the last time they ran.
Will they make amends or is the very astute Size getting them ready for the International Races?
I also notice that Gerard Mosse replaces Zac Purton on Little Bridge in the same race with Entrapment.
This seems a little unfair to Purton who has done so well with this horse and was just beaten into second place at its last start.
Why replace him?
Did the owner think he should have won the race?
I doubt no other jockey could have done any better and when outsider Rich Unicorn came sailing down the outside of the course from last to take out the race.
Still, the booking of Masterful Mosse on the horse means that the owner really wants the horse to go one better this time.
Though not a Six Up bet fan, this is easy to enough on Sunday as there are so many standouts- if they are to salute.
The problem is that if the favourites salutes, the Six Up will barely pay for your taxi fare back home.
Supreme Jewellery, Entrapment, California Memory and Ambitious Dragon all stand out as winners.
Apart from the latter, I have a few misgivings about the other three.
Actually, some real doubts that has had me sitting around trying to figure things out.
The runs of the Size pair were just too bad to be true and you know my thoughts from reading above.
As for California Memory, it needs to be ridden relatively “cold” and must have everything to go its way.
If jockey Matthew Chadwick is held up during the race and cannot unleash the horse’s lethal late burst, this red hot favourite will bite the dust.
And with John Moore employing another army of horses, one can easily be used to make sure California Memory is left California dreaming.
Chadwick will have to be at his brilliant best.
Apart from Moore’s Jacobee, I really think Thumbs Up has a very good chance to upset the favourite.
In the last race, my favorite horse this season so far runs- Caspar Fownes’ Best City- and I think it will be right there in the finish and run into the top three- at least.
The race where a real outsider can come in is in race 9.
The overnight odds show a very open race.
So, will Ambitious Dragon win with a leg in their air?
Yes. I really cannot see anything else in that race with the class of this brilliant galloper.
As for the Jockeys Challenge, this will be very close between Maxime Guyon and Douglas Whyte.
Having lost the prized ride to Guyon, you can bet that it would give Whyte nothing better than to go home with 3-4 winners and the Jockeys Challenge in the bag.
Whatever happens, it promises to be one helluva great day of horse racing.
Good luck and watch out for any “entrapments”!
THE GURU
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