Hungry Brown has the edge over champion Whyte
Jockey Corey Brown is dead keen to have a big season this year and he could be the man to serve it up to the punters' pinup boy, Douglas Whyte, in the first leg of the Triple Trio at Happy Valley tomorrow night.
Brown has ridden a winner at each of the three meetings to date and trails Whyte and Frenchman Gerald Mosse by one on the early premiership list.
He has two excellent rides in the TT legs - Daneman Hill for Ricky Yiu Poon-fie in the first leg and Shogun for fellow-Aussie John Size in the final leg.
Daneman Hill is a chance to put Yiu on the scoreboard for the season if he can pick up the new season where he left the last.
The Danehill colt got his act together late in the piece, but his early speed enabled him to post two impressive wins around the Valley 1,200m for Brown and he is ready to run a great race again as he chases the hat-trick.
Whyte came right back to top form with a treble at Sha Tin on Sunday and will be aboard strongly-fancied runners in each of the legs - Million Chase for Manfred Man Ka-leung in race four, likely favourite Fortune Smiles for Size in race five and Classa For Ever for Peter Ho Leung in the final leg.
Whyte rode his first winner for the season on Man-trained Diamond Century last Wednesday night and his engagement for Million Chase may help improve the sprinter's fortunes.
He has proved a difficult ride for virtually everyone who has been on him, but perhaps Whyte can bring the right tune from Million Chase, who is still lightly-raced for a five-year-old and ended last season with a close second to Excellent Boy.
He worked up very strongly at Sha Tin yesterday morning to indicate he has held that form.
David Ferraris-trained Chosen One and Size's Funtrap look the best of the rest.
Brown doesn't have a ride in the second leg and here Whyte looks the man on Fortune Smiles.
Fortune Smiles was just cut down by Classa Win in a similar event last week and that run is sure to have him right at his top for tomorrow night.
Again he has barrier one and Whyte should be able to dictate the terms.
Hardest to beat could be backmarkers John Moore's Bear Dominance and Danny Shum Chap-shing's Winning Kevin if Fortune Smiles and the other leaders make any mistake and track specialist Phoenix Fortune has claims from his nice draw.
In the final leg, both Whyte and Brown will ride likely sharp improvers in Classa for Ever and Shogun respectively.
Classa For Ever was disappointing when resuming at the opening meeting at Sha Tin up the straight but he is much better around the turns of the tight city track. With that Sha Tin run under his belt, he will be very hard to beat this time in the night's feature event.
Shogun also disappointed at Sha Tin in the same event behind Able Prince, but he was unsuited by the shifty ground and is drawn to suit.
