Karis Teetan is hoping to jump aboard the Jimmy Ting Koon-ho winning train at just the right moment when he takes a rare ride for the first-year trainer on Wednesday night.
While the pair has 29 individual winners between them this season, they have combined for just one ride in total, earlier in the season.
Teetan will take the ride on Trendiful in the Class Five Lyric Ace Handicap (1,200m) after he was beaten as odds-on favourite last start with Derek Leung Ka-chun in the saddle at Happy Valley.
Ting has enjoyed a phenomenal start to his training career with 11 winners from his first 37 runners at an incredible strike rate of 30 per cent.
While such a high strike rate will be unsustainable over the course of the season, Teetan said he expected Trendiful to turn around his first-up disappointment.
“I gave him a piece of work over 800m. The horse feels like he’s flying, he’s in good condition,” he said.
“Of course Jimmy has had a very, very good start so he knows what he is doing and looks like he is bringing horses to the races in good condition. I will definitely expect it to be a horse that is ready to go out there and perform well.”
Trendiful is expected to set the pace in the race with a wide draw in barrier nine more than likely forcing Teetan to move forward.
Another horse expected to go around as favourite is the Tony Cruz-trained Blitzing in the Class Four Windicator Handicap (1,200m).
The horse has been heavily worked already this season and will be chalking up his fourth start in just seven weeks on Wednesday night.
Teetan was able to win his last start on the horse at Happy Valley two weeks ago when he nosed out Ting’s horse Applause.
“I was surprised with how much speed he had out of the gate so all together I think it was a pretty good win,” he said.
Karis Teetan and Tony Cruz’s new partnership off to a flying start with a treble at Sha Tin
While he was forced to jump from barrier 11 last start, Teetan will be afforded a much more comfortable beginning from gate one on Wednesday night.
“He is jumping from a good gate so he is definitely going to save more energy and of course I expect him to be in a similar position [leading],” he said.
“I think he can still progress and improve, he gave me a really good feel last time. He has got some good, natural speed and still gives a kick in the straight, so I think we will learn a lot from this.”
The bulk of Teetan’s 18 wins this season have come via Cruz, with the pair striking up a strong partnership.
The pair have combined 20 times already for eight wins after Cruz used Teetan just 42 times in over four years before that.
With Cruz a five-time champion jockey in Hong Kong through the 80s and 90s, Teetan said he was a valuable asset this year when it came to learning additional information.
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“It’s a great opportunity to work with Tony, he is a very good trainer, and a very good adviser too,” he said.
“I am learning a bit from him too, but to ride his horses, he has some very good ones, of course you are going to the races and you have the horses underneath you that are going to be able to perform.
“It really helps and makes our jobs easier, I really appreciate his help and his owners’ support.”
Teetan will also ride Money Winner, Cloud Nine, Multimax and Daring Fit on Wednesday.
