Mo and Leung proving a potent combination
On the eve of Cody Mo Wai-kit’s birthday, Hong Kong racing’s old “birthday winner” line will inevitably get a run, but Mo hardly needs the folklore to make his case on Sunday.
He has trained exactly one winner at each of the season’s five meetings, and Derek Leung Ka-chun has supplied three of them.
Leung is three wins and a second from eight rides for Mo, a 50 percent quinella strike rate, and the pair combine five times on Sunday through Rising Elite, Draco, Bucephalas, Flying Knight and Aeris Nova.
Mo’s 32 runners have produced five wins, four seconds and three thirds despite carrying a combined market expectation of only 2.33 winners, while just one has started favorite.
There has been no single big meeting inflating the figures either: Mo has beaten market expectation at all five fixtures.
Leung’s eight rides for Mo carried an expectation of only 0.63 wins and produced three.
Cruz knocking on the door
Tony Cruz remains winless after 37 runners, but the number does not tell the full story of how his horses have started the season.
His runners have produced four seconds, five thirds and four fourths, while 19 of the 37 have finished within three lengths of the winner. The median beaten margin is three lengths.
Several have come within a stride of ending the drought after Tycoon Resources was beaten a head, Beauty Crescent a short head when finishing third, Windlord three-quarters of a length and Bright Mortar 1¼ lengths when finishing second earlier this month.
The betting market has also suggested the breakthrough should have arrived by now. Wednesday night was another example, as Cruz saddled seven runners at Happy Valley for a best result of second and two fourths.
Bright Mortar returns on Sunday with another chance to get Cruz off the mark, while the veteran trainer also saddles four other runners, including intriguing debutant Four Stars Align, who has continued to catch the eye at the trials.
Déjà vu on the card
Twenty-four of Sunday’s runners were on this card 12 months ago, and five of them won.
Flowing Riches, Speedy Smartie, Little Paradise, Lucky Sam Gor and Beauty Crescent all scored at the corresponding meeting last season and return looking to repeat the dose.
Race 8 carries the strongest echo of last year. Patch Of Theta and Copartner Prance both contested the Celebration Cup, finishing sixth and second respectively, while Little Paradise won the Class 3 1,200 meter race earlier on the program to deliver Jimm Ting Koon-ho's first winner of the season which he is in the same situation today on zero wins from 11 runners but three second place finishes edging him close.
There were several other near misses among Sunday’s returning runners. Daily Trophy and Notthesillyone both finished third at this meeting last year, Double Bingo was second and Mr Good Vibes fourth.
The overlap stretches from Race 1 through to the finale, an unusually large returning cast for the same fixture 12 months apart.
