Hot Delight's win kept Francis Lui Kin-wai in the title hunt yesterday, but it is next season he has his eyes on with the 2027 Classic Series contender.
Lui – champion trainer in 2023/24 – held outright fourth in the standings and stayed within 10 of leader Caspar Fownes after his exciting three-year-old returned to the winner's stall with an impressive Class 2 victory at Sha Tin.
It came on the first twilight fixture of the season, at which four of the top five handlers struck with 10 meetings remaining, turning the run home to the Seasonal Finale at Happy Valley on July 15 into a genuine scrap.
Hot Delight had rocketed through the grades, winning three from three to surge to a rating of 81. He was then beaten as the 2.1 favorite last start, but Lui never lost faith, especially with Vincent Ho Chak-yiu back aboard.
"He's an honest horse and his quality is very good," Lui said. "He got a bad draw last time, maybe the jockey didn't know him too well, but Vincent knows this horse well. He had him travelling comfortably and was very happy with how he performed.
"If he can improve in the off-season, he has very good potential. It won't be easy to find a race for him next season. He's our first choice for the Classic Series, and we'll want to try him up in trip."
The victory was one of several blows traded among the championship contenders. Fifth-placed David Hayes fired first when Leaping Star moved him to 50 wins, within 10 of Fownes. Mark Newnham then struck as Ace scored a narrow win to draw level with Danny Shum Chap-shing in second on 57, just three behind Fownes.
But Fownes answered and restored the lead to four. Love Together held on by a short head in a straight-course thriller to push the defending champion to 61 – before Hot Delight's win kept Lui in with a remote chance of a second title.
Newnham, the third-season trainer who has long played down his title chances and had just two runners at the meeting, remained measured.
"I only had two bullets to fire, so it's not bad going," he said. "Every day is important now. But I've been saying it for months: it (the championship) hasn't been my main focus of the season. If it happens, it happens. I'm not going to over-race the horses or push the young ones just to try and do it because I'll ruin them for next season."
Fownes, chasing a fifth career championship, savored Love Together's win, both in the context of the title chase and from a betting perspective.
"It was quite exciting, because we fancied it," he said. "He's been racing really well for a three-year-old all season, mixing it at both tracks. When they win by those margins, when you're fighting out a championship, this is where it comes down to – where we need them."
Adding merit to Hot Delight's win was the fact that Ho brought him down the center of the track to win on a ‘C’ course that was playing "up and in" and favoring the rail.
Hot Delight has drawn comparisons with Lui's former star Golden Sixty, also ridden by Ho, who swept the 2020 Four-Year-Old Classic Series before going on to become one of Hong Kong's greatest horses.
Hot Delight has now won four from five and will be rated in the 90s when re-handicapped today. Golden Sixty won just three from four as a three-year-old and was rated only 75 when he returned for his four-year-old campaign
