Draw, handicap mark and class all point to Whyte's mount
Experienced Happy Valley sprinter Supreme Goliath is drawn to slay the boom youngster My Honour in this afternoon's feature event at Happy Valley, the Hong Kong Football Club Challenge Cup.
The race is run over an ideal 1,200 metres, as far as the sponsor is concerned, as it means the field jumps from literally outside the football club's windows and scoots past the club's gym before taking the nasty right-hander and swinging down the tricky city circuit's back straight.
All this should be grist to the mill for Supreme Goliath. He's done it all before at Happy Valley and is drawn perfectly in barrier one to do it all again. He should also relish taking on this Class Three company, having been a useful Class One sprinter as recently as 12 months ago.
The draw is ideal as Supreme Goliath loves to sit handy but smothered up. If he sees too much daylight too early, he can start to race too freely and not get home. From barrier one, and with the demon Douglas Whyte in the saddle, this eight-year-old speedster should get the perfect trail behind something like Mighty And Gold or Easy King, who are drawn in gates three and four.
Last time out, 10-pound claimer Way Leung didn't appear able to get to the bottom of Supreme Goliath and prior to that the David Oughton-trained gelding needed his reappearance effort.
Whyte said yesterday: 'It's going to be really interesting to see how he runs. He seems to have retained enough ability to be competitive given the way he's dropped in the ratings. Pulling barrier one is a plus factor, providing we jump well, but he's an old pro and knows his job.