Laureate can get the better of Golden Double in the sixth event on tonight's mixed grass and dirt meeting at Sha Tin where there won't be too much atmosphere but there are some good betting opportunities which, fingers crossed, will more than compensate. The sixth looks a reasonably straightforward affair by Hong Kong standards with Golden Double and Laureate standing out as the two main form chances. Normally when there is a full field of 14 runners so competitive is the event framed by the handicapping department that it is hard to cross out more than a couple, if that. But in this sixth event Laureate and Golden Double leap off the page followed by The Greatest and then, maybe, Elite and Super Lord. Beyond these it is hard to see too many other main form chances. Basil Marcus will probably be looking to come from just off the speed aboard Laureate. The six-time champion hasn't been having too good a trot of late and is almost certainly a few winners behind the kind of tally he would have liked to have accumulated with just over a quarter of the season gone. But he's shown time and time again that when he's down he's at his most dangerous which is why Laureate is going to get a serious ride tonight. Laureate should also get a nice tow into the race off the speed which is likely to be set by the likes of Take Off, Elite, Winning Years and perhaps Well Known Supreme. And Laureate comes into the race in fine form. His most recent was rock solid relative to the overall make-up of this 2,000-metre contest. Last time he ran third to Sure Win, beaten just half a length, in an 1,800-metre contest in which they clocked a very good Topspeed figure. It also looked to be a tough race, much more competitive than tonight's and already the form has been franked from it by Fruitful Trip (eighth) winning at Happy Valley and Hara Hara (10th) running third to Basketball Leader and Botany Bay on Saturday. Marcus, who was on Laureate behind Sure Win and also gave him every chance prior to that, will know exactly what to do to get the best from him. Golden Double has been racing well this season on both the grass and the dirt and looks to be ideally drawn in barrier 10. He can be slowly away, though his tardiness at the barriers has been less pronounced of late, and he likes to challenge out wide, around his opponents. This he should be able to do from stall 10 and the ultra-confident and highly competitive Australian jockey Glen Boss knows the horse well. Boss won the big race on the weekend on Multi-Star and he can be virtually guaranteed to put his mount in there with a winning chance as they come up the home straight. He is another who will benefit from the likely solid pace but it isn't going to be easy for him to come from way off the pace and win on the 'C+3' course which is why Laureate is preferred in terms of a win wager. Elsewhere, Forever Prosperous is worth keeping safe in the opening dirt sprint while Destination could be the big improver in the third. He looks a lovely horse in the making and is worth a win and place investment if better than 4-1.
