King finds many loyal subjects among punters

GARY Ng's King came in for plenty of support on his debut at Sha Tin yesterday, shortening in the market from 18-1 at one point to 12-1 at the off.

The Australian subscription griffin, re-classified to a mark of 36 in Class Four having failed to see a racecourse last season, shaped promisingly in his work and in his trials leading up to this race.

But the suspicion was that he would need farther than yesterday's 1,000 metres and that was exactly how he ran for Raymond Tsui.

He was outpaced over the first 600 metres as River Treasure and Auto Focus set a fast pace.

He was then noted doing all his best work at the finish to stay on with some promise to run fifth of the 13 runners - the field reduced by the late withdrawal of Scotch Dragon.

King is no superstar by any stretch of the imagination but he does look to have enough ability to make his presence felt when taking another one of these voluntary demotions to Class Five, especially if the son of Francis Bacon is pushed up to around 1,400 metres.