Ambitious Dragon can fire past his rivals again

Ambitious Dragon was back to something like his best to take the first leg of the Triple Crown last month and the five-year-old only has to turn up in the same mood to take the second leg at Sha Tin today, the HK$8 million Citibank Hong Kong Gold Cup (2,000m).

While his failure in the Hong Kong Cup in December left unanswered questions, Ambitious Dragon (Douglas Whyte) came off a freshen-up to provide the correct responses in the Stewards' Cup.

It was the Ambitious Dragon we had become used to seeing - gathering his rivals up in a few strides without serious effort - and if he didn't draw away to put more than a length and a quarter on his nearest challenger, that could be put down to the contest being over and no extra being paid for margins.

Whyte was kind, just keeping Ambitious Dragon coasting down to the line, while Xtension (Jeff Lloyd) was at full throttle to maintain his proximity.

It was certainly enough to say the Horse of the Year was back and that is good enough to say that the same Horse of the Year will take the feature with even luck.

Xtension's connections will need something different to happen, some bad luck or an unexpected turn of events somewhere to reverse the decision, but Tony Cruz will doubtless expect California Memory (Matthew Chadwick) to make more of a race with the favourite.