A lot of water has flowed under the bridge for Scintillation in the past 12 months, but the five-year-old can put it all back together and win today's fascinating Chinese Club Challenge Cup over 1,400 metres at Sha Tin. Scintillation came to the same race last year as a warm $25 favourite after his excellent Hong Kong Mile fourth behind Firebreak but could finish only ninth and joined a host of favourites to fail in this event down through the years after racing boldly on international day. It is often referred to as the 'bounce' factor, where a peak performance from a horse in high competition leaves him with nothing for his next run and, with a couple of other quick horses to keep him busy in the lead, Scintillation ran out of steam under 133 pounds behind a fresh-up High Intelligent with 11 pounds less. In Scintillation's case he did bounce back to scramble home in the Classic Mile at his subsequent race, but he struggled a touch after that and has never quite got back to his absolute peak form in the past year. However, his effort three starts ago with a big weight behind Figures suggested he is going well enough to win a good race and the drop back from 1,600m at his two starts since could be a telling factor. While Scintillation did win the Classic Mile at 1,600m and ran well in the international a year ago, he has never looked quite the same horse at that distance as he has looked free-wheeling along at 1,400m. And 'free-wheeling' is another key point. Gerald Mosse, who led throughout in the Classic Mile at his only ride on the gelding, should have no trouble rolling to the front from gate one and most of Scintillation's rivals today need to sit off him and settle to do their best racing.That should give Mosse the chance to let Scintillation use his natural pace, breathe and enjoy himself in front until the French ace is ready to apply the accelerator. Nevertheless, for a smallish field, the Chinese Club Challenge Cup is a fascinating event with quite a wide spread of chances and Scintillation's stablemate Town Of Fionn (Shane Dye) is one of the potential spoilers for the topweight. Forget his run when coursing wide in the Hong Kong Mile but take a look back at his run in that same race behind Figures on October 30 and a repeat puts him right into this race. He is another better suited by the in-between distance of 1,400m than a mile lately and has yet to be unplaced over it in six attempts. Other big dangers include the John Size-trained High Intelligent, though he is not coming into this race as fresh as from a lay-off last year and the 1,400m might prove a touch sharp for him as a result, especially in the likely stop-start tempo. My Choice (Eddie Lai Wai-ming) is another who relishes 1,400m and ran well enough for David Hall first time out to think a 16-pound weight drop puts him into the contest with a chance.
