Wong's Glow set to shine bright next term
This is the time of the season to try to identify one or two dark horses who could do the business at decent odds next time round.
The Alex Wong Siu-tan-trained griffin Be My Glow may, and it is a bit of a punt, be one such type.
The New Zealand-bred two-year-old, a son of Housebuster, was nowhere near ready on debut but that is how Wong has tended to prepare a lot of his more backward griffins.
They go to their trials off a very light preparation so look much worse than their true potential and then go into their races more backward in their preparation than a number of others. It is a pretty shrewd move if, like Wong, who is very much a breeding aficionado, you consider them more long-term prospects.
So Be My Glow was very much in need of the experience on debut and predictably he was lost in the early stages and tailed off. But he was noted making some late ground and since then has appeared to pick up in his work to such an extent that he could be one to mark down as a smoky for next season.
He had a solid hitout earlier in the week, and finished the gallop off well, and yesterday had another solid half-mile piece put into him by his not-to-be-underestimated mentor. Yesterday he worked with his Class One stablemate Idol who needed his run on debut and they came through their 800 metres in 50.6 seconds.
The way Be My Glow has handled his work since his debut has been most encouraging. The improvement seems to be there and thus so does the potential.
Ricky Yiu Poon-fie's Jewel Box has done nothing but improve over the past couple of months. He bolted home in a trial on Monday morning, making all, and yesterday put in another useful 800 metres under jockey-of-the-moment Weichong Mawing in 51.2.
Jewel Box is now showing so much speed that he would be an interesting proposition if dropped down from 1,400 metres to 1,200 metres. He's been raised a fair bit for his win two starts ago, and the form isn't that strong, but a return to the shorter sprint may just bring about further improvement such is the way he's blistering through his work.
Smiling Forest has seemingly some of the poorest form to his name of any private purchase of in recent seasons. But he showed up well on debut down the straight 1,000-metre chute behind Success Magic and the way Lawrie Fownes, who generally has his team in good form, has him working suggests he is well placed towards the bottom of Class Three.
Yesterday he clocked 1:23.5 for his 1,200 metres under stable jockey Wendyll Woods and appears to be going the right way. He appears to have left his ordinary English form behind since joining Fownes.
There was one modest trial on the dirt yesterday. It was won by the good worker but poor racehorse Supreme Champion and little should be read into it other than the runner up, Look Who's Angel, is in fine fettle.
