And this, too, went “viral”- the incredible resilience of the Happy Valley track to absorb the ten hours of heavy rain that lashed through the city last Wednesday and battle an ominous Black Storm Warning that went up which, at one time looked as if it had won the fight, the Fat Lady had sung that it’s raining men, and the entire race meeting was going to be called off.
In any other racing jurisdiction, the meeting would probably have been called off the day before with racing executives escaping to their favourite watering holes to drown themselves in their copious bottles of red before waddling home like The Penguin. But not in Hong Kong.
Every Hong Kong race meeting is about billion dollar turnover, sure, but it’s also about feeding the forty thousand- all those local racing fans who have spent days studying the form and who, win, lose or draw need their customary mid-week appetite for racecourse action satisfied. It’s either that or staying in and wondering what might have been while a Korean television drama flickers away in the background and the missus cries watching someone in these soap operas die a meaningless death.
Whatever happened- Happy Valley racecourse draining 100mm of rain per HOUR- and whoever made the call, it was the right one. Wait, we know: Take a bow, John Ridley, below, the HKJC’s Racing Operations Manager. That was Ripley’s Believe It Or Not becoming Ridley’s Believe It Or Not.
The green light was switched on, the jockeys who were on standby at Shatin Heights were called in and racing went ahead after a half hour delay- and on a track described as good to yielding which was upgraded- yes, upgraded- to Good before race seven.
So, while Carnivale braved the heavy rains and possibly being fried onstage, played on at the Beer Garden, and the Happy Wednesday regulars danced in the rain whereas Adrenaline was packed to the rafters, Douglas Whyte and Chad Schofield rode doubles and Joao Moreira ran away with the dish, the spoon and another Jockey Challenge.
And as uncertain as the weather were some of the results. It’s why today, there are some huge jackpots to be had in the Triple Trio and Six Up.
What do The Three Amigos think about the state of play today? Well, we don’t. Our minds are still replaying that incredibly daring and inspired ride by Karis Teetan on Designs On Rome at Sha Tin on Sunday.
That’s a hard act to follow though, with a rare distance race at Happy Valley tonight, the odds of someone trying to outdo the Mauritian Magician is well on the cards. Mercifully, ten-pound claiming apprentice Dylan Mo is still blowing in the wind and not permitted to ride at the city track.
Our thoughts about possible winners and losers? They’re only thoughts.
Far better if you were to watch The Tin Man, The Scarecrow and The Cowardly Lion on that HKJC-produced epic horse opera known as Racing To Win, where, just before every race, there’s now an appearance by a somewhat spookily smiling Dorothy, who’s somewhat reminiscent of Norman Bates insisting on one having a shower.
Just to add more excitement to the programming content, there’s a new Word Of The Day segment. Yesterday’s word was Contractable. Call us silly, but visions of Paul Lally suffering from George Castanza-type shrinkage sprung to mind. Someone take away those mind altering drugs…
Well, try not to be contractable. Instead, stretch out and let one’s mind wander off to another place in time like Camelot, or simply switch off, have a Happy Wednesday, and listen to race caller John Blance wrap his lips around the name of the first starter Fox Sunter in race four and take you to where fools rush in and angels fear to tread.
https://twitter.com/racingb_tch/status/790757760279326720?refsrc=email&s=11
RACE 1 10-2-5-7
RACE 2 3-1-4-8
RACE 3 9-6-8-12
With there being a jackpot and the stats and tea leaves pointing to the favourite being rolled in this first leg of the Six Up, we advise you to tread cautiously. The favourite here is non-winner Newswire Free. Will we take this one out in our Six Ups? Please. And if you don’t care to err on the side of caution be prepared for your Six Up to be detonated.
RACE 4 10-4-6-1
This might be Opie Bosson’s first real chance to ride a winner in Hong Kong. He’s much too good a jockey to go winless for so long, and the Paul O’Sullivan-trained Lucky Seven (10) could well be the one to break the jinx and beat the race’s more fancied runner in DB Pin (4).
RACE 5 4-9-7-12
Watch out for some rather strange rides in this race over 2200 metres. Yee ha, Cisco!!!
RACE 6 9-11-4-3
RACE 7 5-11-8-2
RACE 8 7-11-12-4
By now, the Derek Cruz stable must have had enough bai san ceremonies to appease the gods to last five racing seasons, but someone’s not listening as it’s still to get their first winner on the board. Maybe it’s time everyone in the stable shaved their heads so that the bad fung shui would drop away?
Still, one lives in hope and Joao Moreira has been called on to break the drought and turn water into wine by winning the last for the stable on the rather ironically named Super Fluke. The horse will no doubt start a very short priced favourite. And like the first leg of the Six Up, this last leg has seen many favourites crash and burn. Just saying.
SIX UP
R3: 6-8-9-12 R4: 4-10 R5: 4-9-12 R6: 9-11 R7: 5-11 R8: 4-7-11-12
BEST BET Race 1: Great Speed (10)
NEXT BEST Race 6: Sichuan Dar (9)
VALUE BET Race 3: Sparkling Sword (9)
QUADDIE (1)
R5: 4-7-9-12 R6: 2-3-9-11 R7: 5-11 R8: 4-6-7-11-12
QUADDIE (2)
R5: 4-9-12 R6: 9 R7: 5-11 R8: 4-11-12
PARTING SHOT
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