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

Lucky Sweynesse
7.30 Sha Tin
2pts win

Lucky Banner
8.05 Sha Tin
2pts win

Never Too Soon
10.50 Sha Tin
2pts win

A new season and new names for punters to follow as the first of 88 racedays is scheduled for Sha Tin on Sunday, and it starts with a typically challenging ten-race card.

Silvestre de Sousa is hardly a new face but it is three years since his vigorous, bustling style was last seen in Hong Kong and the triple British champion is set to make an early impact with Lucky Sweynesse in the HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup (7.30).

De Sousa was in luck when highly rated Sky Field was declared, which kept the progressive Lucky Sweynesse at the bottom of the scale on 8st 3lb, making it impossible for the four-year-old’s regular rider Zac Purton to do the weight.

Lucky Sweynesse won five of his seven starts in his debut season and took the award for best griffin (a previously unraced import). He suggested there was better to come and this 6f contest will be a good test. He is an attractive comeback ride for De Sousa.

His main danger is another talented type, Lucky Patch, who unfortunately wasn’t the same after a heavy fall in the Hong Kong Sprint in December, and the gelding left Francis Lui to join new trainer Pierre Ng during the summer recess.

Ng has come through the local ranks and is well acquainted with the Hong Kong system being the son of former trainer Peter Ng Bik-kuen. He starts his career with 50 horses and high hopes of establishing himself quickly.

Lucky Patch is to be ridden by another new face in Angus Chung, who should prove excellent value for his 10lb claim, having ridden 76 winners from nearly 700 mounts on South Australian tracks, so he is hardly a run-of-the-mill apprentice lacking experience.

There will be no Joao Moreira for the first two meetings of the new season as he battles to regain full fitness after a series of injury niggles he carried through a torturous last season. But Purton, the champion, is back with nine rides on the first day.

Purton’s best is arguably the David Hall-trained Never Too Soon in the Class 3 7f handicap (10.50). The gelding has gone up 9lb for an easy win over course and distance in July, but he may be just finding himself. His biggest obstacle is overcoming a wide 13 draw.

Sha Tin Placepot perm

8.05
4 Cheval Valiant
5 Lucky Banner

8.40
4 Amazing Victory
5 Beauty Tycoon

9.10
2 Power Koepp
5 Oriental Smoke

9.40
5 Wide Blue Yonder
12 Stunning Impact

10.15
2 The Golden Scenery
7 Jumbo Fortune

10.50
2 Captain Win
4 Never Too Soon

2x2x2x2x2x2 = 64 lines

Bets can be placed into Sha Tin pools with the Tote, Coral and Ladbrokes. The first race at Sha Tin on Sunday is at 6am.

Sha Tin Sunday card

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