Animated aid – and ‘Handy Andy’ – becomes the punters’ pal

Order has been restored, favourites are again flowing – the five short-priced winners on Wednesday matching the total at the first five meetings – and taxi drivers  are now smiling instead of scowling and  have enough change for a $100 note. And the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Racing Simulator predicted it all.

Well, not quite, but the interactive and animated punting aid did pick another Andy Leung Ting-wah-trained winner, which must make it racing’s equivalent of Deep Blue and beyond human intelligence.

The Racing Simulator, an iPhone and android app, allows players to watch an animation of races on mobile phones and tablets, producing a moving speed map and, in theory, helps predict “pace-dependent” outcomes of races.

The best part is that users can play around with the figures – horses’ overall ability, their condition, best distance, and just as importantly, tactics – and have some fun. Like the time we decided to find out what would happen if a 40-1 shot  served it up to seemingly unbeatable 1.2 favourite Amber Sky on opening day … oh, wait a second, that was in real life. 

Even though  normalcy returned in betting markets on Wednesday, there was still the mischievous Mr Leung acting like some sort of evil genius, as he played havoc with punters – China Good producing a blow-out result in the first leg of the Six-Up.

We were claiming credit for championing the cause of  Leung  – revealing his colour-coded feng shui-inspired outfits were the reason for his  resurgence – which  continued last night with his third winner in as many meetings.