It's So Easy for Piggott
EVERGREEN Lester Piggott is reunited with So Easy in the fourth event at Happy Valley tomorrow night and Double Trio punters can ink this one in as the banker for the first leg of the exotic bet.
So Easy was in Class Five when Piggott threw a leg over him last season and quickly recorded his first win of that particular stint.
It was also the beginning of an emphatic rise up the grades for the Ivan Allan-trained galloper who ended the season as one of the most improved horses in training.
That form has been duly underlined in the current campaign with So Easy, at his last start, scooting up over 2,100 metres on equitrack. His overall versatility on both racecourses and surfaces had been demonstrated earlier with an equally solid showing behind City Raider on the synthetic surface.
The form all around So Easy is faultless and his return to the Valley grass and over this trip should result in a second win on the bounce for the horse - and another success for Piggott.
There is really very little depth to this Class Three event but Kowloon Might is on a hat-trick and he has discovered the meaning of real form this season.
His last success was on New Year's Day at Sha Tin when Basil Marcus brought him through with a very strong run from well back to snatch victory just on the line.
He has been freshened up for this and trainer David Hill's string are in good form as his treble at this venue last week demonstrated.
Marcus again partners Kowloon Might and he will certainly know the strengths of So Easy, whom he rode to success last time.
Veteran campaigner Star Mark is also very well placed and he ran well to finish second to So Easy on the equitrack last time.
He is now six pounds better off with the topweight for a length and a quarter and may not turn the form around - particularly over 1,650 metres which may be seen to suit So Easy just a little bit better. But Star Mark, with little weight and steady form, is a solid quinella and tierce chance.
The second leg of the Double Trio sees Silver Arrow and Win Label clash.
The other clear chance in the race is last start winner Courageous who has the services of Gerald Mosse and won very handily last time. But he has come up quite a way since the beginning of the season and may find this just that much harder.
But the Lawrie Fownes stable is in top gear at the moment and Courageous has held his form, making him still a fairly potent threat.
Irish galloper Jewellery Star has had the benefit of a break and comes back to action here with Alan Munro aboard. This would seem to be his ideal trip and he has run particularly well at Happy Valley before.
With Tony Cruz aboard Silver Arrow, that one is likely to start favourite and it will be a nasty shock to punters if he does not at least run in the first three in the nine-runner field.
He is narrowly accorded the banker role from Win Label but the John Moore-trained gelding could win without surprising.
