Locked in battle for the Hong Kong trainers\u2019 championship, Frankie Lor will unleash a formidable band of Four-Year-Old Classic Series contenders at Sha Tin on Saturday (24 December), hopeful of ending a frustrating recent run of near misses.<\/p>
With 22 wins, Lor sits third in the 2022\/23 standings behind Tony Cruz (24) and John Size (23), but the reigning champion trainer\u2019s victory tally could have been even more impressive if not for an exasperating string of minor placings.<\/p>
From 36 starters across six December meetings, Lor has saddled two winners and 12 minor place-getters, but hopes Class 1 Chevalier Cup Handicap (1600m) winner Keefy can crown tomorrow\u2019s meeting with victory in Class 2 Poinsettia Handicap (1600m) under Derek Leung.<\/p>
\u201cI was a bit surprised \u2013 winning by three lengths \u2013 I thought he had a good chance, but he won well,\u201d Lor said of the 100-rater who is being aimed at the Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) on 29 January.<\/p>
\u201cLast season, I was thinking he should be suitable for the Four-Year-Old (Classic) Series. I think a mile to 1800m is still okay and I hope 2000m is okay.\u201d<\/p>
Apart from Keefy (135lb), Lor will also be represented by All For St Paul\u2019s (126lb) and Celestial Power (124lb) in the meeting finale, which also features Tony Cruz-trained Beautyverse (123lb) for Zac Purton, who needs two wins to reach 1,500 Hong Kong victories.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Beautyverse triumphs on debut.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Five-time Hong Kong champion Purton is hopeful Beautyverse, who created a strong impression when winning on debut on 6 November, can erase memories of his subsequent seventh behind Keefy on 27 November.<\/p>
\u201cHe got it all wrong. He\u2019s a horse who\u2019s over-raced and done a few things wrong in his races back in Australia, which is why they allowed him to relax in his races,\u201d Purton said of the G1 South Australian Derby (2500m) winner formerly known as Jungle Magnate.<\/p>
\u201cBut after his first race in Hong Kong when Tony asked me to lead \u2013 and it worked that day because he was drawn wide because he was able to build his momentum up and lead \u2013 but drawn inside last start, he was a bit slow out and I gave him a squeeze, it just set him alight and he wouldn\u2019t stop. He got his head up and it all went wrong.<\/p>
\u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to Tony yet about this time, but hopefully he can get it right.\u201d<\/p>
Hugh Bowman is optimistic Lor-trained Majestic Colour (130lb) can advance his Four-Year-Old Classic Series claims when he makes his Hong Kong debut in the Class 3 Pine Handicap (1400m).<\/p>
Formerly trained in Australia by Kelly Schweida, Majestic Colour won four successive races in Queensland, including the G3 Winx Guineas (1600m) \u2013 the race named in honour of the champion mare Bowman partnered to 25 Group 1 wins.<\/p>
\u201cHe comes here with some good form and some high expectations and it\u2019s a good starting point for him at Sha Tin. I won\u2019t rush him into a position but if we could find a spot midfield or even a bit handier, I would be satisfied with that but I\u2019ll just ensure that he\u2019s comfortable certainly for that first half of the race and I think if he\u2019s even a good rhythm \u2013 and I can find that sweet spot \u2013 there\u2019s no reason why he couldn\u2019t really challenge late,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6185″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cI think he\u2019s forward enough to run very well. There\u2019s no question that he\u2019ll improve on what he does tomorrow and he\u2019ll improve as the distance increases as well, so I\u2019m as interested as everybody else to see how he does begin his Hong Kong campaign and I think it\u2019s a great starting point and just to reiterate I think he\u2019s coming off a pretty decent trial on the Sha Tin All Weather.\u201d<\/p>
David Hayes will unveil Flagship Warrior in the Class 3 Yan Chai Trophy Handicap (1200m), a four-time winner in South Australia, including the Listed Port Adelaide Guineas (1800m) at Morphettville in April, when he raced as Harleymoven.<\/p>
\u201cI liked his races in Australia, he showed electrifying turn of foot at times. He didn\u2019t quite stay in the South Australian Derby, but in the lead-up races, he was terrific,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>
\u201cI thought his last trial was full of merit \u2013 he\u2019ll be running on strongly on the weekend, but he\u2019s got a very awkward gate.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019ll run a bit like Bon\u2019s A Pearla did a couple of weeks ago. He\u2019ll get back and charge home but it will be a huge effort if he can win \u2013 1200m, 133lb and barrier 14. So, he\u2019s short of his distance, wide and a big weight but I do think he\u2019s very good.\u201d<\/p>
Saturday\u2019s (24 December) 10-race card at Sha Tin starts with the Class 4 Amaryllis Handicap (1400m) at 1pm.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6184″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Locked in battle for the Hong Kong trainers\u2019 championship, Frankie Lor will unleash a formidable band of Four-Year-Old Classic Series contenders at Sha Tin on Saturday (24 December), hopeful of ending a frustrating recent run of near misses.With 22 wins, Lor sits third in the 2022\/23 standings behind Tony Cruz (24)… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6182"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6182"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6188,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6182\/revisions\/6188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}