Hong Kong racing tips: Jim McGrath with three picks at Sha Tin as the season gets back under way

Lucky Sweynesse
6.55 Sha Tin
2pts win

All Is Good
9.30 Sha Tin
2pts win

The Golden Scenery
11.10 Sha Tin
2pts win

It is great to see one of Hong Kong’s equine superstars, Lucky Sweynesse, showcased in the Class 1 HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup (6.55) on the opening day of the new season at Sha Tin on Sunday.

Following an eight-week summer recess, Hong Kong punters are ready to have a crack at the first day card, though field sizes have been affected by the typhoon season, which has interrupted training for many horses.

Lucky Sweynesse won eight of his 10 starts last season, proving a real war horse, tough enough to cope with anything thrown at him. He has won his last six on the trot, and that could easily have been a sequence of eight but for bad luck in running in the Hong Kong Sprint in December.

Zac Purton, his regular partner, rode the five-year-old into second in a ‘warm up’ barrier trial on Monday, and the jockey warned it was not ideal to be trialling after a three-month break so close to an important first outing of the campaign. That said, Lucky Sweynesse has class and a good draw going for him.

He is again asked to give away 20lb to main danger Victor The Winner (who finished just ahead of him in the trial) but the weight difference in the handicap is an accurate reflection of their relative status.

The Manfred Man-trained Lucky Sweynesse, ranked the seventh best horse in the world, can use his outside draw (six of six) to follow Victor The Winner (drawn five) over to the inside in the early stages and sit poised to pounce when they turn for home. He will be a red-hot favourite so best take him in multiples.

Six-time champion Purton has his usual strong book of rides, but looking beyond the obvious in Lucky Sweynesse, his best appears All Is Good in the Class 3 7f handicap (9.30), in which the classy mare Bon’s A Pearla is also expected to run a big race.

All Is Good looked ahead of the handicapper when winning three in a row late last season, and even with a stiff 7lb increase, he will again prove hard to beat.

Bon’s A Pearla, who was third in the Australian Guineas prior to export, can be expected to improve in her second season.

The Class 2 7f handicap (11.10) looks a tough finale on the opening day, but The Golden Scenery, who is now attractively handicapped, and the promising Flaming Rabbit are the two to note, while those following Andrea Atzeni on his return to Hong Kong can look to the Tony Cruz-trained Beauty Crescent as arguably his best mount, in Race nine (10.35).

Sha Tin Sunday card

Sha Tin Placepot perm

8.00
5 I Give
7 Soaring Tower

9.00
3 Champion Method
4 Ruby Sailing

9.30
1 Bon’s A Pearla
8 All Is Good

10.00
5 Ariel
6 Light Of Wanshi

10.35
2 Beauty Crescent
4 Ace One

11.10
1 Flaming Rabbit
4 The Golden Scenery

2x2x2x2x2x2 = 64 lines

Bets can be placed into Sha Tin pools with the Tote, Coral and Ladbrokes.

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