RACEDAY REVIEW: Lui doubles down at Sha Tin, Almighty Warrior fights above his weight and Chau beats the draw

Training Performance of the Day - Francis Lui Kin-wai

Hong Kong racing has its “King of the Valley” among the training ranks. There has been less noise about the “King of Sha Tin”, but Francis Lui Kin-wai has made that title his own this season.

Lui went into Saturday’s meeting with 40 wins on Sha Tin’s turf this term, eight clear of next-best John Size, and left with that gap intact.

He struck early when Almighty Warrior took out the Griffin race that opened the card, then added another with Graceful Heart, who broke through after four unplaced runs.

“He’s a young horse who will improve,” Lui said of Graceful Heart. “He’s still green and you can see how he runs — he just seems to know nothing.”

That took Lui to 42 Sha Tin turf wins for the season. Size answered with a race-to-race double in the second and third races to move to 34, but Sha Tin remains Lui’s patch this term.

Horse to Follow - Almighty Warrior

Almighty Warrior may have been the lightest horse on the card, but Francis Lui Kin-wai is not short of faith in him.

Weighing in at just 920 pounds, and one of only three horses across the 11-race card to come in under 1,000 pounds, the three-year-old Irish-bred broke through third-up in the 1,200 meter Griffin race.

He did it properly, too, beating raging $1.10 favorite Jedi Spurs by three and three-quarter lengths, although the odds-on shot was found to have mucus in his trachea. The time was nothing spectacular, but the way Almighty Warrior put the race away gave Lui hope there is more to come.

“Honestly, the horse is quite mature, but his body weight is a bit light,” Lui said. “Otherwise I think he is a very good horse. He’s got a good fighting heart, this one.

“Hopefully he can put on a little bit more weight during the off-season.”

Ride of the Day - Jerry Chau Chun-lok

Barrier 14 was not where you wanted to be on Saturday, which made Jerry Chau Chun-lok’s last-race win aboard Chill Easy a handy reminder of why the Tony Cruz Award is his.

This season’s leading local rider made light of the draw on the $2.70 favorite, getting him cleanly into stride and pressing forward before landing outside the leader by the 1,200m mark.

Vincent Ho Chak-yiu then came burning around him, but Chau’s early intent meant he did not have to panic. He let the two leaders take care of each other, sat calmly on their backs and timed his move, driving through the pair at the 600m before having the race safely put to bed inside the 350m.

The win took Chau to 47 for the season, leaving him fifth on the jockeys’ ladder and well clear of Ho, his nearest local rival, on 36.

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓