Super Gain has been primed to make a winning reappearance in tonight's fifth event at Happy Valley and should be backed accordingly. Trainer Tony P. H. Chan is as astute as they come. He's a former champion jockey here and he knows the local racing scene inside out. He particularly knows when he has a likely winner in his yard and Super Gain fits the bill. Chan has been bringing along the four-year-old very patiently, all the time feeling this Class Four 1,800-metre event was an ideal contest. So meticulous has Chan been in his preparation of the improving son of Green Dancer that he even brought him to the Valley for a grass trial a week and a half ago. Chan only permitted his talented stable jockey Eric Saint-Martin to give Super Gain a very, very quiet trial. It was very noticeable that Saint-Martin took a pull coming out of the barriers and took his mount back and behind the rest of the trial field before allowing him to slide home strongly to the line. That quiet effort should have been enough to serve a dual purpose. First of all it will almost certainly have blown away the close-season cobwebs and secondly it will have helped to educate Super Gain in the sometimes tricky ways of racing around the tight and heavily cambered city venue. But to Saint-Martin the idiosyncratic track is meat and drink. Indeed, last week he gorged himself at the Valley's table, feasting on a treble of which two were supplied by Chan who has his team in fine form. All three winners benefitted from supremely confident rides from Saint-Martin, who goes particularly well at the Valley which has proved to be a difficult track to ride well since it was rebuilt, especially coming off the top corner. And it really does help to have a jockey of Saint-Martin's calibre on board. It is probably the most significant factor in the betting equation - as none other than Tony Cruz has been at pains to point out in illuminating post-race interviews that have followed his three winners as a trainer. Super Gain has not only trialled and worked well, he has the form on the board from last season when he was a progressive individual. He ended the season with a fine 13/4 lengths second to Fortissimo when taking a voluntary promotion up from Class Four to race in a Class Three handicap in which there were also two Class Two horses taking a voluntary demotion. Fortissimo appears to be a potentially useful stayer in the making who should be able to hold his own in Class Two this campaign, yet Damien Oliver, who rode Fortissimo in exemplary style, had to keep him up to his work to keep Super Gain at bay. That run marked Super Gain down as a very likely future Class Three winner, never mind about scoring in Class Four. Yet here he is on a weight of just 128 pounds, courtesy of the bottomweights having been lowered to 113 pounds. That is a big help to Super Gain as he is not at all overly big. Indeed, last season he always looked as if he would be better this time round as he always appeared a bit physically immature. And his cause is further helped by the fact that while he only has a topweight of 128 pounds, the two bottomweights - Divine Express and Mount Sapphire - are likely to be carrying two pounds overweight. This is further evidence - and there has been an absolute heap of it already - that lowering the weights is not helping local jockeys get rides, but just leading to a bewildering plethora of overweights. The best way to approach this race from a betting point of view is probably to keep it simple and just have a solid win and place wager on Super Gain providing he is 7-2 or better. Despite the expected two pounds overweight and depending on his price, it may still be worth having a small quinella with Super Gain and Divine Express who should benefit from the move up to the 1,800 metres. Divine Express showed enough last season when 11/4 lengths second to Money Horse over the Valley mile to indicate he is competitive from the bottom of Class Four. He should also appreciate the move to 1,800 metres and shaped reasonably well on his seasonal reappearance when sixth to Fireball over the Sha Tin mile.
