Punters taking the early odds for tonight's Happy Valley card are backing rookie trainer Almond Lee to break his 'maiden' status at the meeting.
Lee has four runners for the night - Elite Win (Race 3), Pro Joy (Race 5), Barracuda (Race 6) and Paradis (Race 8) - and early markets are conceding solid winning chances to all of them.
In particular, backers have rallied to Lee-trained Barracuda ($48) as the overnight favourite for the sixth, and to Pro Joy ($50), early favourite in an open betting race.
It would be a just reward for Lee if he was to lead in one or more winners tonight after saddling up a remarkable five seconds and a third from his 24 starters to date.
There is barely a horse he has put a saddle on this season which has not produced a worthwhile effort and Lee's turn might arrive this evening.
Under Lee, Barracuda has defied a career pattern of unreliability in putting together two successive seconds that earmarked him as a horse close to winning, beaten on each occasion by improving middle distance horses in Star Of Shantou and Fuji Sunrise. Early punters have put their cash down to say he can do it three times in a row.