Silvestre de Sousa heads into Wednesday night\u2019s (8 February) nine-race fixture at Happy Valley in the hope of securing a third consecutive win aboard Encountered (132lb) in the Class 3 Tsui Man Handicap (1650m).<\/p>
Eligible for the remaining two legs of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series, Encountered sprang to prominence last season with a shock victory at odds of 198\/1 at Sha Tin before adding a pair of Happy Valley wins to his record this term.<\/p>
The improving Churchill gelding will step away from gate five with De Sousa aboard for the third time for trainer Manfred Man.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s improved since they put the blinkers on him and he\u2019s been winning from outside gates \u2013 this time we have gate five which is better. I just hope things can go his way, he\u2019s carrying a lot of weight and the horses down the bottom of the handicap with 115 and 116 pounds get an advantage \u2013 we have a lot of weight to give away.<\/p>
\u201cIf he turns up in the same form as last time then he should be competitive. He has to win to go for those races (Four-Year-Old Classic Series) and he has to do it convincingly,\u201d De Sousa said.<\/p>
Formerly trained in Great Britain, Encountered \u2013 currently rated 81 \u2013 was a winner at Doncaster pre-import over 1405m by four lengths for trainer Marco Botti and tomorrow night he will shoulder 132lb.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Encountered goes back-to-back at Happy Valley.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cThe owner really wants to run in the Hong Kong Classic Cup. We\u2019ll try, he keeps improving and when he came to Hong Kong he was a little bit immature. Now that he\u2019s a four-year-old, he\u2019s getting better and better,\u201d Man said.<\/p>
De Sousa has five rides at Happy Valley including Rewarding Together who contests the Class 1 Blue Pool Handicap (1200m) after finishing second to Sight Success in last month\u2019s G3 Bauhinia Sprint Trophy Handicap (1000m).<\/p>
\u201cIt was a good run, he didn\u2019t have things go his way that day but he drops in grade and I hope he can be competitive. He\u2019s a consistent horse,\u201d De Sousa said.<\/p>
The Frankie Lor-trained gelding sits on a career-high mark of 103 and is a two-time winner from four starts this term. He breaks from gate six against 11 rivals.<\/p>
The DBS x Manulife Million Challenge concludes tomorrow night at Happy Valley with both Encountered and Rewarding Together positioned on 30 points. Nearly Fine leads the competition on 53 and is looking to stave off the late challenges of Street Scream (45 points) and Excellent Peers (42). Either horse must win if they are to unseat Nearly Fine.<\/p>
Earlier this morning (Tuesday, 7 February), Russian Emperor stepped out in batch one at Sha Tin\u2019s barrier trial session ahead of his trip to Qatar for the QAT G1 H.H. The Amir Trophy (2400m) at Al Rayyan on 18 February for Douglas Whyte.<\/p>
\u201cIt was just a top off really. He leaves on Thursday (9 February) afternoon, so Hugh (Bowman) gave me some good feedback and the horse hit the line strongly. He was just there to have a blow out,\u201d Whyte said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Russian Emperor stretches out at Sha Tin this morning.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
The 2021\/22 Hong Kong Champion Stayer clocked 58.91s for the 1000m turf barrier trial, crossing the line in seventh position with Hugh Bowman aboard.<\/p>
\u201cWe know that Senor Toba is going \u2013 he won impressively and he\u2019ll be a force to be reckoned with but my horse is healthy. I\u2019ll send one of my work riders to let him get accustomed to the training facilities and I\u2019ll leave on Monday (13 February),\u201d Whyte said.<\/p>
Tourbillon Diamond limbered up under Alexis Badel on the turf over a mile later this morning, crossing the line in first position in 1m 39.30s for his trial as he readies for his G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) tilt on 26 February for Danny Shum.<\/p>
\u201cI am happy. I have kept him fresh and happy, everything\u2019s sound but he\u2019s against Romantic Warrior, so it\u2019s a bit hard \u2013 it\u2019s a big challenge for him,\u201d Shum said.<\/p>
Shum also trains Romantic Warrior, who last start finished second to Golden Sixty in the G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m) on 29 January.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s (Romantic Warrior) pulled up sound, he\u2019s good. The 2000 (metres) is more suitable for him and I think the field will be quite small, so that\u2019s good for him,\u201d Shum said.\u00a0<\/p>
The Mary Slack-owned Wings Of War stepped out in batch 10 this morning under Karis Teetan for Tony Millard. The 78-rater crossed the line third in 1m 11.09s for 1200m on the dirt.<\/p>
The Dark Angel gelding won the 2021 G2 Mill Reef Stakes (1200m) at Newbury pre-import and is yet to make his Hong Kong debut.<\/p>
Wednesday\u2019s (8 February) nine-race fixture at Happy Valley kicks off at 6.45pm with the Class 5 Yuk Sau Handicap (1650m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7305″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Silvestre de Sousa heads into Wednesday night\u2019s (8 February) nine-race fixture at Happy Valley in the hope of securing a third consecutive win aboard Encountered (132lb) in the Class 3 Tsui Man Handicap (1650m).Eligible for the remaining two legs of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series, Encountered sprang to prominence last season with… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303"}],"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=7303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7308,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions\/7308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}