Avdulla's better ammunition is starting to arrive

Brenton Avdulla knew September might be quiet, but the better horses he had been waiting for are starting to arrive, led by Bustling City's seven-length win at Sha Tin on Sunday. 

The timing is important for Avdulla, who is riding on a six-month license after his tally slipped to 21 winners last season from 47 and fourth place in the championship the season before. He has made no secret of wanting to remain in Hong Kong beyond February and sits on two wins from 32 rides this term, alongside four minor placings.

"I always knew at the start of the season I had some ammo, but I was going to have to wait a few weeks," Avdulla said. "If you'd asked me a few weeks ago, I thought I probably wouldn't ride a winner for the first few weeks and then Bustling City and Jedi Spurs would start to step out."

Bustling City certainly did, winning about as impressively as possible first-up on Sunday and giving Avdulla a progressive four-year-old to follow into another all-weather race in two weeks, while Jedi Spurs now gets his turn on Thursday.

The David Hayes-trained four-year-old won his debut by four and a half lengths in 55.81 seconds, one of the biggest Griffin debut margins of the past decade and one of the fastest times, before becoming last season's shortest-priced beaten favorite when second at 1.1. Mucus was found in the horse’s airways afterward, enough in Hayes' view to explain the defeat, and the trainer’s opinion of his horse has not changed.

"It was probably my biggest shock when he got beaten last year," Hayes said. "Hopefully I'm saying in 12 months, 'How did he lose a Griffin race?' But I hold him in high regard."

Rated 60, Jedi Spurs returns in Class 4, exactly where Hayes wants him.

"Oh, you're only in Class 4 once," Hayes said recently when asked whether Jedi Spurs would return at the bottom of Class 3 or the top of Class 4.

Avdulla is just as keen to see what Jedi Spurs can do on his return.

"Jedi Spurs steps out on Thursday and I'm hoping he can win. Hopefully we can build a bit of momentum," he said.

My Mars gives Avdulla another Hayes prospect to look forward to after the pair combined for two wins and a second from three starts last season before a ligament injury ended the horse's campaign, a setback Hayes previously described as an "earth tremor" rather than an earthquake.

"David's been really good to me and it's nice to be riding some nice horses," Avdulla said.

The Australian has six rides at Thursday's National Day Cup meeting, including Raging Blizzard in the feature after the pair were beaten a neck by Fast Network in the same race last season, while he also picks up Ricky Yiu Poon-fai's Virtus Glory after the four-year-old resumed with another second-place finish.

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