Frankie Lor is banking on Zac Purton\u2019s expertise to offset Healthy Happy\u2019s weight challenge in the Class 1 Chinese New Year Cup Handicap (1400m) at Sha Tin on Tuesday (24 January) as the Hong Kong champion trainer searches to end a frustrating losing streak with the 108-rater.<\/p>
Winner of the 2021 Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m), defeating Russian Emperor and Shadow Hero en route to a career peak mark of 114, Healthy Happy has since added only one more victory and is currently in the midst of a 10-race run of outs.<\/p>
Contained in that sequence, however, is a quartet of Group 3 placings, including a last-start second to Lucky Sweynesse in the G3 Chinese Club Challenge Cup Handicap (1400m) at Sha Tin on 1 January under Silvestre de Sousa.<\/p>
Purton, who leads the 2022\/23 jockeys\u2019 championship by 38 wins with 78 victories so far, partnered Lucky Sweynesse at the New Year\u2019s Day meeting but teams with Healthy Happy for the first time in the six-year-old\u2019s career on Tuesday.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”5635″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cThis time I put Zac Purton on because he\u2019s carrying 135 pounds, so Zac is maybe better in this situation with the weight,\u201d Lor said. \u201cThe horse ran well last time and this time he can lead by himself or sit second. He\u2019s always consistent, so I hope he can win this time.\u201d<\/p>
Healthy Happy faces nine rivals on Tuesday, including stablemate Winning Dreamer (126lb) in a field which also contains Blaze Warrior (129lb), Fantastic Treasure (127lb), The Golden Scenery (127lb), The Irishman (124lb), Beluga (122lb), Circuit Stellar (115lb), Family Folks (115lb) and Mr Ascendency (115lb).<\/p>
Lor, who has 29 wins this campaign, has previously been unsuccessful in two 1400m attempts with Winning Dreamer \u2013 a seven-time victor from 1000m to 1200m in Hong Kong \u2013 but hopes the Deep Field gelding is now sufficiently seasoned to stretch in trip more effectively.<\/p>
\u201cHe has raced two times at 1400 metres without winning but we can again step to 1400 metres \u2013 he looks like that distance will be better for him now,\u201d Lor said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”5634″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Mr Ascendency finished third behind the impressive Tuchel at Sha Tin over 1400m last Sunday (15 January) and Ricky Yiu has no reservations in backing up the gelding under de Sousa.<\/p>
\u201cHe has come through his last run 100 percent. He had been back and forward between Conghua and Hong Kong before that and he had benefitted from that,\u201d Yiu said. \u201cI think the horse has still got a bit of improvement in him and I\u2019m pretty optimistic because he\u2019s carrying the light weight on Tuesday that he will be close again.\u201d<\/p>
Mr Ascendency shouldered 127lb last weekend in Class 2 and the rise in grade is accompanied by a corresponding 12-pound drop in weight.<\/p>
\u201cHe ran really well the other day, it\u2019s over 1400 metres again, but this time a lot lighter,\u201d said Yiu, who sits in eighth place in the trainers\u2019 championship with 20 victories to date.<\/p>
Tuesday\u2019s (24 January) 11-race card starts with the Class 4 Kung Hei Handicap (1200m) at 12.30pm.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”5633″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Frankie Lor is banking on Zac Purton\u2019s expertise to offset Healthy Happy\u2019s weight challenge in the Class 1 Chinese New Year Cup Handicap (1400m) at Sha Tin on Tuesday (24 January) as the Hong Kong champion trainer searches to end a frustrating losing streak with the 108-rater.Winner of the 2021 Hong… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":5636,"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\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5631"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5660,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631\/revisions\/5660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/chinese-new-year\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}