David Eustace unleashed an exciting prospect and potential Classic Series contender when Helene Supafeeling won his first start in the city at Sha Tin yesterday.
Helene Supafeeling was thrown into the deep end at Class 3 level and handled the strong 1,200-meter contest under James McDonald, edging to a promising half-length win.
“Today was about teaching him to race the right way more than the end result, but it’s a nice bonus to see him attack the line well,” Eustace said.
“I think there’s still some improvement to come. He’s wandering around a bit under pressure and he races in ear muffs at the moment and I’d like to take those off at some stage.
“He’s on the right path now so we’ll seriously have to think about [the Classic Series].”
Ride of the day: Karis Teetan - Smart Avenue
Karis Teetan timed his run to pinpoint perfection when he led in the final stride aboard Smart Avenue to win the ninth race of the day, a Class 3 over 1,400m.
After sitting patiently aboard the Dennis Yip Chor-hong-trained four-year-old, the Mauritian urged his mount to make headway turning for home.
Left with plenty of ground to make up 300m out, Teetan continued to ask for his Smart Avenue for everything down the centre of the track until he reeled in Everyone’s Star in the shadows of the winning post.
While Smart Avenue had shaped with promise on his three starts in Hong Kong, his win at 14.9 was a big step forward.
Elsewhere on the card, James McDonald prevailed in a ding-dong battle with Brenton Avdulla in the sixth race of the day when Prestige Good provided Ricky Yiu Poon-fai with his first winner of the afternoon.
Training performance of the day: Jamie Richards - Cool Boy
After a slightly frustrating period by his own admission, Jamie Richards was delighted to celebrate his first winner in nearly two months when Cool Boy collected his first career win at the second time of asking.
Richards, who got off to a blistering start to the season, was without a winner since October 26 until Cool Boy defied barrier 14 under James Orman.
“They’ve been running well but it’s nice to have a winner on the big day,” Richards said. “He was pretty green and pretty new on debut, but he’s made good improvement at home since then and we were quietly confident that he was ready to run well.”
“He’s only a three-year-old so once he drew barrier 14, our chances were diminished a little bit. But Jimmy Orman gave him a great ride and he’s obviously improved from his first start. It looks like he has a good future if he can keep improving.”
