NEVILLE Begg's Local Colour showed he will not be long in winning his way out of Class Four with an emphatic barrier trial win in the third of three heats on the Sha Tin equitrack yesterday morning.
Local Colour was desperately unlucky to come up against the rapidly-improving Namjong and a revitalised Forever Ahead last time. He was given the perfect ride by Robert Thompson and put in a most creditable effort to finish a head and a neck third, just running out of hard racing condition inside the last 100 metres.
He will be that much fitter next time he runs and looked in great nick as he lengthened clear from Lucky Champ and Smile For Me, who also went well, in yesterday's trial.
The opening heat went to David Oughton's dodgy customer Holy Terror who spent a couple of strides trying to take a bite out of Phantasy Way on his last start at Sha Tin. Yesterday Holy Terror looked more than capable of winning from his current rating when scoring in by far the best time of the morning - one minute 09.1 seconds.
But he is solely a work horse. Prior to running unplaced down the straight 1,000 metres on his penultimate outing he had given his Class Two-rated stablemate, Classabove, a good trouncing in a very solid piece of work from the barriers down the back straight. He looked a good bet to run the quinella with Neville Begg's decent young prospect, Chiu Chow Warrior. But when he was put under the barest minimum of pressure his ears went back, his head up and he just didn't want to know.
Trials are an entirely different matter. They are run at three-quarter speed and that slight diminishing of pressure makes all the difference to these faint-hearted types. They can look reformed characters in their trials and in their work but it is rarefor them to rediscover resolution in their races.
