Speed, weight to favour Striker
John Size and Brett Prebble are beginning to build up a successful association and they appear set to continue a recent hot streak when they team with the ever-reliable Gold Striker in today's HK$1.6 million Chinese New Year Cup (1,400m) at Sha Tin.
Size has used Prebble only sparingly over a four-year period but he is calling on the in-form jockey more frequently of late and the results are beginning to flow.
Prebble turned around the fortunes of Liberal's Choice and G-One Leading last month and was given the opportunity to partner Gold Striker for the first time on February 4, again producing the goods.
The Faltaat gelding, who had racked up a frustrating run of six placings since his previous success, camped forward on a slow speed before unleashing a brilliant final sectional of 21.7 seconds for 400m to win in effortless fashion.
Prebble has been in hot form in recent months in winning 29 races from his last 150 rides, while Size has produced a similar strike rate from his last 60 runners by leading in 12 victors.
Gold Striker strikes a field with a bit more depth today but appears a good chance to land on the back of a solid speed and he looks an outstanding chance to claim the biggest prize of his career.
Talented five-year-old Good Ba Ba will be the hardest for Gold Striker to hold out but the Size-trained gelding's ability to race more forward and having a slight advantage at the weights may prove the telling factors.
Good Ba Ba made a huge impression when making his debut for the Andreas Schutz stable last start by racing wide on a limb throughout before running on strongly to down the classy Sir Ernesto in the shadows of the post.
While a repeat of that performance would have the Lear Fan gelding winning again, he doesn't look quite as well suited with a drop in distance and is second-up from a break off a very hard run.
The interesting runner is Adaikali, who is being stretched to 1,400m for the first time in 21 months.
The Sean Woods-trained gelding showed great heart to return to his best two starts back under the steadier of 133 pounds before being outclassed behind Scintillation in the Bauhinia Sprint Trophy.
The six-year-old is settling so well in his races these days that the rise in distance could well be suitable and it must be remember that early in his career he did win a race in England over 2,005m.
The other thing in Adaikali's favour is that he will be partnered by renowned front-running rider Felix Coetzee for the first time and he is likely to take a lot of running down.
Firm Offer is sure to run his usual honest race under a light weight, while Dave's Best could be the surprise packet given he looks nicely placed with the claim for apprentice Terry Wong Chi-wai.
