Hong Kong racing tips: Jim McGrath with three Sha Tin picks on Sunday

Country Treasure
8.40 Sha Tin
2pts win

Oriental Smoke
10.15 Sha Tin
2pts win

Brilliant Way
10.50 Sha Tin
2pts win

John Size is tipped to further increase his lead in the trainers' championship with a string of major chances on a ten-race card at Sha Tin, which has been hard hit by a government ban on the cross-border movement of horses owing to Covid.

More than 250 horses are stabled at the Jockey Club's training complex in China and many are shipped to Hong Kong on raceday but that has been halted as a massive Covid testing program is carried out in parts of Guangzhou.

Size may be a beneficiary of these unique circumstances, particularly in the case of his intriguing newcomer Country Treasure, who will be partnered by Joao Moreira in the Class 4 6f sprint handicap (8.40).

Winning on racecourse debut in this grade is not uncommon and there is confidence the three-year-old has been well prepared for it. In his seven months since arriving from Australia, he has completed nine barrier trials, the last four of them with Moreira in the saddle.

He clearly has ability, and with the fields largely weakened by the travel restrictions, he should go in at the first time of asking. An inside draw will be to his advantage, and his main opposition could come from lightly-weighted Noble Boyz.

Size also has an excellent winning chance with Brilliant Way in the finale, the Class 3 7f handicap (10.50), especially as the New Zealand-bred import appears well treated, having gone up a modest 5lb for a solid win over course and distance two weeks ago.

The only part of the puzzle that doesn't fit is that Moreira, aboard for all his three starts, has deserted him for Beauty Live. Size has booked Vagner Borges, who is proving a useful go-to jockey for the trainer when the 'Magic Man' looks elsewhere.

Zac Purton, who leads Moreira 94-90 in the jockeys' championship, has his usual collection of attractive rides, the best arguably being the David Hayes-trained Oriental Smoke in the Class 4 7f handicap (10.15).

The four-year-old has been runner-up in all three starts to date, the most recent when he was beaten a nose. This is surely his opportunity to break through with My Ecstatic perhaps the one to beat.

TOTE PLACEPOT PERM

8.10am
2 Campione
6 Beauty Missio

8.40am
3 Country Treasure
14 Noble Boyz

9.10am
1 Copartner Ambition
3 Horsesain Bolt

9.40am
1 Millennium Falcon
11 Salutation

10.15am
1 Oriental Smoke
4 My Ecstatic

10.50am
4 Beauty Live
10 Brilliant Way

2x2x2x2x2x2 = 64 bets

Bets can be placed into Sha Tin pools with the Tote, Coral and Ladbrokes. The first race at Sha Tin on Sunday is at 5.00am.

Sha Tin Sunday card

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