Fruitful Trip looks solid banker material in the final leg of tomorrow's Triple Trio on Centenary Cup day at Sha Tin. There's a great day's sport in store with the eagerly awaited reappearance of the likes of Indigenous and Oriental Express adding spice to the Centenary Cup which is run down the straight 1,000-metre chute and is the middle leg of the sprint Triple Crown. But in terms of the TT, it is Fruitful Trip who looks the anchor in the sixth event. The Lawrie Fownes-trained four-year-old has always appealed on looks and had just been needing a step up in distance in order to start to fulfil his potential. The move up in distance came last time out and he duly made all the running to score bravely over the Valley's 1,800 metres. Tomorrow's 2,000 metres should not be a problem and he looks set to run ito the placings at the very least. Geoff Lane does well with his small string as illustrated by the significant improvement he has extracted from Darley since he joined him towards the end of last season. Darley found a mile too short at Happy Valley last time and should go much better back to 2,000 metres at Sha Tin. Golden Phoenix is very much on the upgrade and is another must for the TT. Others to throw in are led by Andy Leung's improving Goodwill who is preferred to stablemate, Merry Maple, and Tony Cruz's Ascot Hero who has always looked a stayer. Of the others Cheers Up should be suited by the 2,000 metres and Better Choice is a much better horse at Sha Tin than Happy Valley. Gagne Ensemble, Fortune Tycoon, Melrose Star and Baby Wave Supreme could be the four to take against the field in the third event which opens the TT. Gagne Ensemble should have finished much closer on the dirt last time as he had no luck in running at all. He's an improving type. The other three are all lightly raced and open to considerable improvement, too. Fortune Tycoon is a particularly lovely individual who has impressed in his work. Melrose Star went into the notebook following his debut run and has gone well since while Baby Wave Supreme is the type to benefit from the application of a visor for the first time and the move up to a mile. Winning Touch looks best of the rest. The Centenary Cup promises to be an enthralling contest and, with the setweights favouring Indigenous and Oriental Express, it would probably be wise to put them in despite the trip being a long way short of their best, especially for Indigenous. The late Jeremy Tree, for instance, always said that his best middle distance Classic horses could always outsprint his best sprinters. Of the sprint brigade, the Alex Wong Wong Siu-tan-trained Fastest Star makes most appeal. He has already won the first leg of the sprint series and ran a top race under a welter burden when chasing home Danswinner and Topspin recently when trapped wide the whole way from his outside draw. Laser Star loves the straight 1,000-metre chute and is also worth putting in as are Kowloon Pride, who also loves the straight, and last year's sprint champion Quick Action.
