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Man Of Honour erases any lingering doubts

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Man Of Honour went a long way to restoring his reputation as one of the territory's potential stars for next season with a smooth victory in the Argonaut Plate at Sha Tin last Saturday.

On his debut, Ivan Allan's young sprinter had produced a scintillating display of natural speed to clock a Topspeed rating of 76.

That level of speed figure rated the best debut performance in a griffin race over the past four seasons and considering the ease of victory it immediately stamped him as a potentially exceptional animal in the making.

Next time out, though, he proved the disappointment of the season, trailing in third to Fast Win at odds of 1-10 over the same 1,000-metre strip that had witnessed such a brilliant display of raw speed just a fortnight earlier.

For that dismal effort Man Of Honour earned a time figure of just 49 but in truth that was an unsatisfactory race for more than just the flop of such a strong favourite.

There has been some profound track bias over the season and variations in ground conditions from one part of the course to the other is far from unknown.

But, two weeks ago, the straight 1,000-metre course was made up of two different surfaces. The turf was visibly cutting up in the chute, while it was riding good to firm on the course proper according to all the other winning times that day.

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