Bill had been threatening to win on the dirt earlier in the season for Francis Lui, and following yesterday's decent dirt trial second he can be placed to advantage soon by his new handler, Peter Chapple-Hyam.
Bill clearly has been difficult to train as he's been sparingly raced over the last season or so, but when he's right, he's a very effective all-weather performer. He ran well first time out this season until running out of hard racing condition over the last 200 metres and his next start is best forgotten as he lost it at the start.
Since then he's moved to Chapple-Hyam, who has been patiently bringing him along, mindful of his dodgy legs.
Yesterday Bill jumped well under Irish riding sensation John Egan, who comes in for the majority of the good mounts for the Chapple-Hyam stable. Bill actually led such a quick and quality performer as Danswinner at the halfway point in this 1,050-metre trial before eventually running a neck second to the Tony Cruz-trained galloper. These two pulled two lengths clear of Chris Cheung Ting-pong's habitually good worker, King Confident, with a blinkered Multizen keeping on for fourth.
The trial should have done Bill the world of good and, providing Chapple-Hyam can continue to work him regularly, he is one to watch out for in up-coming dirt events.
There were also two trials down the straight 1,000-metre chute for this season's new imports. The second was by far the better of the pair, going to Derek Cruz's private-purchase griffin, Gentle Giant, who is due to make his debut this weekend. Gentle Giant, a Pompeii Court three-year-old, showed good speed until tiring in his first trial and is making pleasing progress. The same can be said of the runner-up, Brian Kan Ping-chee's Housebuster three-year-old Grand Fighter, who was making considerable improvement on his first trial.
Peter Ho's Best Light, who ran third, was not at all knocked about by Egan and could be an interesting performer. He was trained for last season's English 2,000 Guineas but didn't measure up. Sometimes a Guineas preparation can wreck a three-year-old's career as it comes so early in the season. They can then come back to themselves at four. This might just be the case for Best Light, who raced as Scarteen Fox for David Elsworth in England.
