Moore looks to control the programme
Punters love a winner and the man who has trained more winners than anyone else in Hong Kong racing history, John Moore, was the centre of their focus on last night's early markets.
Moore's Derby-bound private purchase Viva Pataca, owned by Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun, headed the betting for the final event at $30 on last night's 6pm tote call. But early shoppers expect that to be merely the icing on Moore's cake.
They have hit Inspiration (Douglas Whyte) hard in the season's first griffin race, the Niigata Plate (race one) and made the Flying Spur gelding a dominant $20 favourite ahead of David Ferraris's brilliant triallist Bear Macho.
Moore (pictured) is revered by local punters as 'the griffin master' and has won this race many times over the years. His horses are always perfectly educated and Inspiration has the added bonus of a wide draw on the always-biased C+3 rail placement.
Moore's impressive three-year-old Able One, a close second at Sha Tin on his Hong Kong debut after scoring at Canterbury Park in Sydney at his only other start, has come up favourite for the seventh event at the surprisingly-short quote of $20. The race is a competitive affair, with Tony Cruz's quality youngster Lucky Unicorn also engaged, and both these horses are giving parcels of weight to John Size's in-form chestnut Luminous.
One of the most exciting gallopers engaged at the meeting, the Cruz-trained Floral Pegasus, is now a $27 favourite to extend his winning sequence to four in race nine, the Japan Racing Association Trophy for Class Two horses.
Although given an 11-point boost in the ratings for his last win, that spring boarded him out of Class Three, Floral Pegasus looks like going straight to the front once again and dominating the race at the hands of Felix Coetzee. An outside barrier draw (14) won't be stopping a horse of his natural early brilliance.
