Douglas Whyte expects Blake Shinn will experience familiar sensations of power and quality when the Australian returns to Sha Tin on Sunday (20 November) to partner Russian Emperor in the HK$5 million G2 BOCHK Jockey Club Cup (2000m).<\/p>
Shinn last season partnered Hong Kong\u2019s champion stayer to victory in the G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) and G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m) before departing for Australia.<\/p>
Pointing to Russian Emperor\u2019s performance trend of improving markedly at his second run each preparation and beyond, Whyte said: \u201cThe writing is on the wall \u2013 and I\u2019ve said this numerous times that his second run of his campaign is usually really good and the third run is when he really excels.<\/p>
\u201cI sat on him on Tuesday (15 November) morning on the turf and he felt really good, his action was great, which is when he runs a good race \u2013 he\u2019ll be running a huge race but whatever he does, his main target is December.\u201d<\/p>
Russian Emperor resumed under Lyle Hewitson with a four and a half lengths 12th behind California Spangle in the G2 Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy Handicap (1600m) at Sha Tin on 16 October. Shinn returns to the saddle on Sunday as Whyte looks to either the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) or G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) on 11 December.<\/p>
Russian Emperor starts from gate seven on Sunday.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”31636″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Stablemate Savvy Nine is also on trial for a possible G1 assignment next month when he continues his preparation on Sunday from barrier six under Jye McNeil following his last-start fifth behind Money Catcher in the G3 Sa Sa Ladies\u2019 Purse Handicap (1800m) on 6 November.<\/p>
\u201cI thought his last run was decent. He got knocked back and came out four and five wide and he was probably one of the only ones hitting the line. He\u2019s put two decent runs together this season, so he\u2019s going to the races fit and in good health,\u201d Whyte said.<\/p>
A 13-time Hong Kong champion jockey, Whyte believes G1-winning Stronger can improve on his recent form when he tackles the G2 BOCHK Private Banking Jockey Club Sprint (1200m) from barrier one under Vincent Ho.<\/p>
Citing fitness gains, Whyte said the chestnut is building towards a strong showing.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s probably in as good a form as I\u2019ve had him this season. He got away from me in the summer and he\u2019s still a colt and he\u2019s now back on track weight-wise and I think his trial with Vincent 11 days ago was very encouraging,\u201d he said.<\/p>
\u201cHe was about 30 pounds above his best weight and he\u2019s cut back substantially.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”31635″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Whyte will pit Turin Redsun against Golden Sixty and California Spangle in the G2 Private Wealth <\/em>Jockey Club Mile (1600m) in the hope of qualifying the gelding for the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) on 11 December.<\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s a small field on Sunday and he\u2019s up against two of the best in Hong Kong. He\u2019s 30 pounds out of the weights but when you start getting to this calibre of horse, you can\u2019t really consider the ratings \u2013 you\u2019re there to see if you can make the Internationals or not,\u201d Whyte said.<\/p> \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve chosen to do. The owners are really keen to try and if he earns prize money, he\u2019s going to go up in the handicaps and that\u2019s the punishment you pay for running in a race like this.\u201d<\/p> Turin Redsun begins from barrier two for Lyle Hewitson, while Golden Sixty has drawn gate six for Ho. California Spangle has barrier three for Zac Purton.<\/p> Sunday\u2019s (20 November) meeting at Sha Tin starts with the Class 3 BOCHK Cross-Border Services Handicap (2000m) at 12.45pm.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”31634″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Douglas Whyte expects Blake Shinn will experience familiar sensations of power and quality when the Australian returns to Sha Tin on Sunday (20 November) to partner Russian Emperor in the HK$5 million G2 BOCHK Jockey Club Cup (2000m).Shinn last season partnered Hong Kong\u2019s champion stayer to victory in the G1 Citi… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":31637,"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":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31630"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31630"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31647,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31630\/revisions\/31647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}