DRIVING early-morning rain prevented too much fast work at Sha Tin yesterday though most of tomorrow's runners were out and about.
One of the paradoxes of the all-weather track is that, unlike grass, it gets faster the more it rains.
The dirt compacts and it becomes a very hard surface. As Derek Cruz's jockey Gary Carter explained yesterday: ''It's fine to go steady on but it becomes so hard and fast when it rains like it did yesterday that it really is too much of a risk to gallop them on.'' A number of the trainers even swapped their work regime to focus on the smaller inside track where the fresher all-weather surface offers a little more cushion under such inclement conditions.
Tomorrow's opening event is a very modest affair which should see another bold bid from John Moore's Big Apple who is well positioned in Class Five.
He has looked in top shape over the last fortnight including when out for a stroll yesterday and when given an easy trial down the straight 1,000 metres at the beginning of the month.
But watch out for Noble Regent who is now with Lawrie Fownes and looked to be moving very fluently under the in-form Darren Gauci.
