Happy Valley trades its floodlights for autumn sunshine on Sunday when the city track stages its only day meeting of the season.
Until Sha Tin opened in 1978, every meeting in the city was run at the Valley, and until night racing arrived there in 1973, all of it was run in daylight. The track now belongs to Wednesday nights, which makes Sunday afternoon a once-a-year chance to go racing the way generations of Hong Kongers did.
The day meeting also serves a practical purpose, falling as both tracks switch from summer to winter grass and giving the Sha Tin turf a break before the Hong Kong International Races on December 13. It brings a soundtrack too, as the Music & Dine Festival opens in the Beer Garden, and racegoers don't often get the chance to dance at the Valley while the sun is still up.
Caspar Fownes took that chance on a Sunday afternoon in June 2010. He trained six winners at the meeting, a Hong Kong record for a trainer, and Brett Prebble rode five of them on the way to a record six-timer of his own. By the end of the card Fownes was disco dancing in the parade ring, a celebration that has stayed part of Valley folklore ever since.
One of those six was Jumbo Gold, owned by Billy Chan Wing-kwong, and the Jumbo silks bring two strong chances to Sunday's card. Jumbo Blessing won at the Valley's first meeting of the season for Fownes, and Jumbo Treasure lines up in the feature for Cody Mo Wai-kit.
In October 2014, the Tony Cruz-trained Peniaphobia won a Class 2 over 1,200 meters on a Sunday afternoon at the track and it marked his arrival as a top-class sprinter. He took the Group 2 Jockey Club Sprint next time out, went down by a neck to Aerovelocity in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint and then won the Group 1 Centenary Sprint Cup in January 2015.
Nothing in Sunday's Kwangtung Handicap Cup is likely to reach that level, but the Class 2 sprint looms as a frantic contest all the same. Jumbo Treasure ran fourth behind Ka Ying Attack last start and meets several of that field again. Son Pak Fu has barrier one and Jerry Chau Chun-lok back aboard, and Victor The Winner and Rising Force both like to lead.
