Most Beautiful created history last week when he became the first horse trained in Conghua to win in Hong Kong and the stable is hoping to strike again while the iron is hot.
The Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained six-year-old came from last to salute at Happy Valley last Wednesday and he returns seven days later for the Class Three Community Chest Cup (1,000m).
While the win was a milestone for the Jockey Club’s new HK$3.7 billion facility, it was also significant for Dylan Mo Hin-tung, his first victory since suffering a dislocated hip in March.
“It was a great feeling to get a winner – I missed a lot of racing when I was injured so to come back on a good horse and win made me happy and my boss [Shum] was happy,” Mo said. “It was a bad injury, it took a long time to fix up but it’s good now.”
Most Beautiful rises seven ratings points for his win, taking him up in grade (but he will drop 13 pounds with the claim), however Mo thinks that could work out in his favour.
“Now he’s in Class Three, those horses are a bit faster than the ones in Class Four so hopefully he relaxes and he can run home strong,” he said. “He can do it again, he didn’t get a good draw so I will have to do my best.”
One horse who has drawn well is Dennis Yip Chor-hong’s Super Wise, who has come up with barrier four, and jockey Umberto Rispoli thinks he should find a nice spot in running.
“I am very happy with the draw we’ve got, over 1,000m they are going to go fast for sure. It’s going to be a nice way to settle behind the speed,” Rispoli said. “He does have gate speed but he’s a horse that if you give him too much he won’t finish.”
That is what happened last start when Super Wise led over 1,200m at Sha Tin but faded late and the Italian is hoping he doesn’t fall back into bad habits.
“When he first came here he was a horse that you couldn’t fight with, you couldn’t drive him, he was dangerous,” he said.
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“Dennis has done a lot of work with him, making him do laps in the morning, working quiet, quiet, quiet. Of course after a few seasons now he is much, much better.”
Turf Sprint (Zac Purton) and Keep Moving (Victor Wong Chun) also look to have strong claims in the night’s trophy race.
