Hong Kong tips: Jim McGrath with three strong fancies for Sunday's Sha Tin card
Leap Of Faith
9.05 Sha Tin
2pts win
Drops Of God
9.35 Sha Tin
2pts win
Hall Of Champ
10.10 Sha Tin
2pts win
John Size typically takes time to get into his stride but prepare for his season to take off tomorrow at Sha Tin, where Drops Of God in the feature Chinese Recreation Club Challenge Cup (9.35) looks the best of his six runners.
Size, who boasts 11 trainers' titles in Hong Kong, rarely has his horses fully tuned up for the early meetings. He is 0-16 after four racedays but only one was prominent in the market, with the majority going off at double figures.
Expect that to change this time when Joao Moreira partners the promising Drops Of God, who is 2-4 and has never finished out of the first three, and a young talent still well handicapped despite an 11lb hike in the ratings for his last win in July.
Drawn the extreme outside in gate 11, Moreira is expected to lead and make a dash across to the inside in the first two furlongs before dictating the pace. Tony Cruz's interesting import California Cible is set to enjoy the run of the race from the inside, while Equaletta Blitz can also run well.
California Cible won twice for Peter and Paul Snowden at provincial tracks in New South Wales and clearly has ability. His recent trials have been more than satisfactory and is one to include in the multiples.
Size and Moreira are also tipped to land the Class 3 mile handicap (9.05) with Leap Of Faith, who caught the eye in a barrier trial on the Sha Tin dirt nine days ago. Significantly, he won first time out last season and has Enzemble to beat in a race featuring several who will be better with a run under the belt.
Blake Shinn must be asking himself 'what is going on?' as a week ago, he was the talk of local racing when he rode a four-timer at Sha Tin but has since been booked for only two rides.
One was unplaced on Wednesday but fortunately for him, he gets the leg up on the Caspar Fownes-trained Hall Of Champ in the Class 3 7f handicap (10.10) tomorrow.
Hall Of Champ has an excellent chance and comes into this off the back of a strong-finishing fourth in a similar race a week ago. He started from a wide gate on that occasion but from stall 3, he should be up there all the way.
Moreira's mount Dragon Fortune is the main threat, with Star Performance next best having won at the track last time out.
Bets can be placed into Hong Kong pools with the Tote, Coral and Ladbrokes. The first race at Sha Tin on Sunday is at 6.00am
Sha Tin Placepot perm
8.00
2 Speed Fay Fay
4 Decisive Action
8.35
5 Beauty Spirit
10 Solar Power
9.05
4 Leap Of Faith
5 Enzemble
9.35
3 Drops Of God
8 California Cible
10.10
2 Hall Of Champ
13 Dragon Fortune
10.45
2 The Rock
11 CP Brave
2x2x2x2x2x2 = 64 lines
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