SO often at this time of the season, the horses to back are those which ran well at the start of the campaign before. It is one of racing's basic laws that some horses run well off a light preparation - or fresh - while others need a number of runs to blow away the close-season cobwebs. It is a good little system to note down and follow horses that run well first time out.

Over the years there have been plenty of these in Hong Kong which is one of the main reasons that I'm making the Geoff Lane-trained Perfect Sunshine (Nap) tonight's best bet in the third event on the Happy Valley grass. Last season Perfect Sunshine landed a nice little result when he ran the quinella with Ivan Allan's Explorer.

Significantly that effort came over tonight's 1,235-metre distance when making that all-important seasonal debut. After that Perfect Sunshine rather lost his way. He was tried over farther and then he bled before coming back to run one more decent race last season. Again that came over tonight's distance of 1,235 metres when he ran second to another Allan-trained improver, this time the lightly-raced Active Luck. The Lawrie Fownes-trained Super Bingo II, another with good form while racing fresh, could well give Perfect Sunshine most to do, especially as Super Bingo II confirmed his well being when taking a recent trial on the all-weather.