Fast starts have never been the issue for Danny Shum Chap-shing. Sustaining them has been the harder part.
Shum was again right in the mix early last season, looking like a premiership contender before the stable went cold from February onwards. Of his 40 winners last season, 29 came from his first 251 runners. He managed only 11 from his next 259, eventually finishing 11th, 29 wins behind champion trainer John Size.
This season has been different. Shum has not only avoided the same mid-season slide, but he has also already built the best campaign of his training career by winners. His previous high was 57 in 2020/21, when he finished fifth in the trainers’ standings, but he has already reached 58 wins with eight meetings remaining.
An interesting layer to Shum’s success is the stable-transfer angle. From the transfer runners tracked this season, Shum has produced 12 wins from 41 starts at a 29.3 per cent strike rate, accounting for just over 20 per cent of his 58 wins. Three of those eight have won at their first start for Shum, reinforcing his strong longer-term record with stable transfers on their stable debut: 11 wins from 66 runners at 16.7 per cent since the start of the 2016/17 season.
Forever Folks won first-up after leaving Michael Chang Chun-wai, and Thunder Blink did the same after transferring from Jimmy Ting Koon-ho. Packing King has gone two from two since joining Shum from Pierre Ng Pang-chi.
Not all of them won immediately for the stable, but several struck within a few starts. Fantastic Fun won third-up for Shum after arriving from Caspar Fownes, then won again. Ex-Cody Mo Wai-kit runners Talents Supremo and Leading Agility won second-up and third-up respectively, while Always My Folks won fourth-up after coming from Chang.
Packing King returns chasing a hat-trick at Sha Tin on Sunday, while the stable-transfer theme gets another test with four-year-olds Packing Fighter and Sea Diamond both making their first start for Shum.
