The trainer's premiership has an inverted and very rare look to it after two meetings - three-times champion trainer John Size is at the bottom of the table, with no placegetters from his first nine runners. But one of the stable favourites, Grand Delight, could change all that in this afternoon's main event. The 2003 Horse of the Year has an edge on most of his rivals, in that he's had a race over 1,200 metres last week, behind The Duke and Town Of Fionn. It's the X factor in the Kwangtung Handicap Cup that gives the seven-year-old a significant edge. While there is no such thing as Size's winning secret, because his methods are open for all to see, one thing he does better than anybody is to race his horses into rock-solid physical order. Hard racing condition is often the winning ingredient with Size horses in tight finishes. Grand Delight has not won since taking the Chairman's Sprint Trophy in April last year. That race completed the Hong Kong sprinter's triple crown and set the son of Hurricane Sky up for Horse of the Year honours. Grand Delight had a poor campaign last season but his pleasing fourth behind The Duke last week, beaten just 21/2 lengths, indicates he's back in business. The race will also be a litmus test for grand mare Elegant Fashion (Gerald Mosse), who heads the weights with a whopping 133 pounds. She must give seven pounds to Grand Delight and, because she's a mare, that translates to an 11 pound disadvantage relative to the weight-for-age scale. A good run will confirm her presence in Melbourne for the Cox Plate in late October. Another Size-trained galloper who commands early interest is Entrepreneur gelding Fashion Jewellery in the third event. Although most of the Entrepreneur breed are known for their middle-distance preference, Fashion Jewellery has an amazing amount of speed and blazed through the first section of his debut race back on May 22. In fact, the gelding went too hard, and with his energy spent early was one of the first beaten after the pressure was applied by his rivals at the 300 metres. Size has taken off the blinkers here, and the result should be that Fashion Jewellery races in a more relaxed and therefore productive manner. In the same race, Dennis Yip Chor-hong has opted for blinkers on New Zealand-bred Globe River (Olivier Doleuze), who ran a good second to All Fit at his only try down the straight course on May 1.
