I predicted in my summary piece on Saturday that this would be a competitive card at Sha Tin and so it proved on Saturday. The good news is that I found my first solid winner of the season in the shape of Family Jewel, who came with a desperate late lunge to get up under Hugh Bowman in the opener. I had hoped that he would be ridden more prominently, but the more patient tactics suited today and when the pace collapse came he showed enough class to get his head in front where it mattered. He is unexposed and even with a small rise, he should still be competitive, though this type of ride always relies on an element of luck. That's enough self-congratulation and the horse that I really want to talk about is the winner of race 9, Magic Control. On just his 2nd start in Hong Kong, he blew away a quality field in this class 3 sprint and could be called the winner from a long way out. The form lines were there if you looked hard enough. He was 3-time winner in Australia for Matt Lauire and he had got the better of Ka Ying Rising in a barrier trial at Sha Tin on 31st August, so he wasn't winning out of turn and he looked to be much better suited to the Sha Tin straight than he had been to the bends of Happy Valley on his debut in June. The handicapper will have a say after this performance, but I suspect that he will prove to be considerably better than Class 3 racing and he could be a potential star in the sprint division this season.
Here are the winners from this mornings card and the speed figures that they produced:
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