Front-runner Ka Ying Star can shine on first start at Happy Valley

Nordic Warrior
1.15 Happy Valley
2pts win

Oriental Elite
2.45 Happy Valley
2pts win

Ka Ying Star
3.15 Happy Valley
2pts win

The traditional wave of Classic races have been contested and it is time for the contenders to settle back into Hong Kong’s class system, which affords them a good opportunity of regaining the winning thread.

The Tony Cruz-trained Ka Ying Star (3.15) is a good example. After notching a first-up victory in handicap company at Sha Tin he finished third in both the Hong Kong Classic Mile and Classic Cup before coming home tenth in the Derby.

His bold front-running style is most effective and should be put to good use on his first outing at the tight Happy Valley, where he can bowl along in the lead from stall three.

In Britain he won three of his four starts for Andrew Balding under the name Urban Aspect, and it is fair to believe he is going to live up to the expectations held for him after he blitzed a strong field at York’s Ebor meeting last year.

He is confidently tipped to land the Class 2 handicap over 1m55y.

The form from the historic first meeting at Conghua – located in mainland China – on March 23 is worth following, and the inaugural winner, Nordic Warrior (1.15), trained by Richard Gibson and ridden by Matthew Chadwick, is certainly worth noting.

He has been conservatively assessed by the handicapper and looks well treated in this Class 3 6f handicap. The Cruz-trained Waldorf is the danger.

Mention – and praise – of Conghua is appropriate in the case of the Paul O’Sullivan-trained Oriental Elite (2.45), as the trainer believes the sprinter would not have won recently were it not for the forgiving track surface at the training complex in China.

This in-form galloper can win again and continue Zac Purton’s great run of success. Oriental Elite has won two of his last three starts but remains on a very attractive mark and is expected to go in again.

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