Young trainer Peter Ho may not have had his best season ever last term but he still caught enough of the cream to be happy with his year and he plans to be even happier with this one. Ho's team is bristling with talent, old and new, but his most intriguing newcomer is the former Singapore speedball, Trillion Win, who will race in Hong Kong as Lucky Win carrying the red and purple colours of property developer Robert Ng Chee-siong. Lucky Win caught all the attention if not the thick end of the prize when he set a breathtaking pace until reeled in by Iron Mask in the the final stages of the Singapore KrisFlyer Sprint last May. The horse left quarantine just yesterday and has already provided Ho with a surprise at his appearance. 'Actually from his shape he is not a sprinter - I would expect him to be a longer distance horse, maybe 1,600m or 1,800m,' he said. 'He is not a very heavy, masculine sort of horse, like King Of Danes, for example, not really built for speed. But as we know, he has a lot of it. Still, he is a good looking horse with a good temperament, and I don't expect any problems with acclimatising since Singapore is similar to Hong Kong.' Lucky Win is such a quick horse that a Hong Kong Sprint start would seem a likely agenda but Ho has made no hasty decisions. 'I'm happy with him but it is too early to say where he will be aimed,' the trainer said. 'My first job is to get him used to the stables here, the feed, the type of work. And when he is 100 per cent OK then we can start to work him along. Perhaps, if he is able to do it, I might look at running him in the Happy Valley Trophy on October 10.' Ho also has high hopes for his two stable stars of last season, Lucky Six and Best Light. Lucky Six was undoubtedly the highlight horse of the term for Ho, winning a Group Three Chairman's Trophy on Derby Day, and lifting his rating through the season by 61 points. Any further development and he might be entitled to a shot at the Hong Kong Cup or Mile, but Ho isn't thinking that far ahead. All he knows is that races for the horse are all going to be difficult ones. 'Lucky Six has a 115 rating now, so there are not really many races available for him except the Premier class type of races,' he said. 'I will probably start him off in the Kwangtung Handicap Cup on the second weekend of the season. I expect he will have a big weight there but I hope he will be able to carry it. He certainly looks stronger, he has grown since last season.' Ho's other star four-year-old from the last season, Best Light, is probably a little better than his form would suggest as he struck wet tracks in the spring when he needed them least. 'He finished sixth in the Derby on a wet track that he didn't like and he had some hard runs in the top class races,' Ho said. 'As a result, Best Light was a bit flat at the end of the last season. But he has had a good break and I think this season I will try to keep him fresh. He looks like the kind of horse who will do his best if he doesn't run too often.' Ho started his training career just four years ago, and while his 29 wins last year was very creditable, it was far from his best effort. 'In my second year, I trained 42 and David Hayes won the championship with 45 winners, so that was my best yet,' Ho said, and outlined a formidable team to to take into battle this term behind his stars. 'I'm very happy I have such great support from my owners again this season. I have 43 horses at the moment, but another eight are to come in from Ireland and two from New Zealand. Three of those are three-year-old Private Purchases who will come in as 52-rated Class Fours but there is also one Class Two horse.' Add to that his promising griffins from last term and Ho is a likely improver this season. 'I think Cheeky will be a good horse but he needs time to mature mentally, he is still green,' Ho said. 'Perfect Shadow trialled badly on Saturday but he suffered heat stress and is much better than that. I think he will win races and Classic Master has already won at 1,400m and I think he will get better over even a little longer.' Classic Master trialled nicely on Saturday and looks ready to run well early, something Ho sees as the sound policy in Hong Kong racing nowadays. 'I think trainers have changed their style to have their horses ready early,' he said. 'Even people like Ivan Allan or Eddie Lo will have their horses ready earlier. They can't afford to start the season too slowly because it is just too competitive now.'
