Our Hong Kong expert Graham Cunningham takes a look at Sunday's Sha Tin card live on Sky Sports Racing.
Heat is on as spotlight switches back to Sha Tin
The weather is steamy but about to break and the action on the track is every bit as hot.
But that’s enough about Royal Ascot for one year.
Hong Kong is about to enter its intense last lap, with just eight fixtures left, and Sha Tin’s latest twilight fixture this Sunday features a host of high-class horses in the last two Group races of the season and a handful of youngsters on the fast track to better things.
12.35: Premier Plate
This looks a complex G3 handicap puzzle whichever way you slice it, with early market signals suggesting a 4-1 the field scenario, but CAP FERRAT’s prospects look brighter than most.
Francis Lui’s gelding sprang a 25-1 surprise in the Derby, making the most of a dream trip in a slowly-run race, but he’s clearly blossomed of late and his subsequent fifth and third in a couple of G1 contests read every bit as well as his Classic success.
Pray For Mir supplies the pace here but I’ll be very surprised if he can replicate his Lion Rock Trophy win on this faster surface.
Ensued and Bundle Award give John Size a strong hand but Cap Ferrat looks fairly treated off 107 and Hughie Bowman gets the leg up on him for the first time.
11.30: Premier Cup
Francis won’t be repeating last year’s late charge towards a first trainers’ title but the veteran handler comes three handed at the G3 Premier Cup over 1400m and it look like he’s going to have the first two in the market in the shape of Packing Hermod and Patch Of Theta.
Packing Hermod faltered briefly on the Derby trail but he’s come back to form in style with a couple of Class 2 successes over this distance and Matthew Poon gets a chance to repeat what Joao Moreira and Zac Purton achieved on him in those two wins.
Maybe it’s significant that Zac rides former G1 winner Beauty Eternal this time but Andrea Atzeni represents another significant jockey switch as he climbs aboard PATCH OF THETA for the first time.
The Sardinian is thriving in his new home, sitting third behind Purton and Bowman with 54 winners worth well over £8m in prize money, and he says he “wouldn’t swap Patch Of Theta for anything” in Sunday’s £400,000 contest.
And no wonder. Patch of Theta has thrived during an eight-race campaign, improving his rating from 86 to 109 with two valuable handicap wins and a couple of excellent recent placed efforts.
The Zoustar gelding stayed on well over 1200m when third behind the high-class Helios Express in the Sha Tin Vase last month but this slightly longer trip looks perfect and all looks in place for him to go very close indeed with Atzeni aboard.
2.20: Amethyst Handicap
It's been a huge week for the Eustace family at Ascot – with Harry celebrating memorable G1 wins for Docklands and Time For Sandals – and the Newmarket handler’s big brother David saddles one of his brightest prospects at Sha Tin on Sunday.
True, DAZZLING FIT has landed on a distinctly warm Class 3 for the Sunday finale as Star Satyr and Shamus Storm are fresh from recent wins and Super Express is almost certainly ahead of his current mark (just 66) after going down narrowly to a couple of very promising rivals on his last two starts.
The Size gelding probably deserved to be jolly but Dazzling Fit has been a File favourite all season and the way he eased out of a pocket to land his second Sha Tin success three weeks ago suggests that he can make them all go again here.
Sunday’s Sha Tin Selections
11.30: Patch Of Theta
12.35: Cap Ferrat (EW)
2.20: Dazzling Fit (and Quinella with Super Express)
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