Quality field makes Derby Trial attractive
'It's pleasing to see the improvement made in just one year'
The HK$3 million Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby Trial at Sha Tin has taken a quantum leap, in terms of quality, over its 2006 counterpart, with the likely field having an average rating of 102 compared to last year's more modest figure of 95.
However, despite its modest origins, the subsequent form of last year's winner Hello Pretty has ensured the race has been given the appropriate respect and, although currently tagged as a domestic Group Two, it actually exceeds the quality of the recent Group One Classic Mile using average ratings as the barometer.
The Jockey Club's new chief handicapper Nigel Gray said this sort of measurable improvement is exactly what the club has been looking for as it attempted to make the programme for four-year-olds more attractive to owners.
'The Mercedes-Benz Derby Trial was run for the first time last year and it's very pleasing, from the club's point of view, to see the improvement that's been made in just one year on a number of indicators,' Gray said. 'Apart from the average rating having gone up seven pounds, the top-rated horse Floral Pegasus is rated 16 pounds higher than his counterpart in 2006, Sunny Sing, while the rating of the lowest-rated horse has lifted from 83 to 92.'
Like most racing fans, Gray has enjoyed watching the emergence of the highly-bred Classic Mile hero Floral Pegasus and was suitably impressed by the authority of that victory after the chestnut travelled wide and without cover throughout.
'On the straight facts and figures of it, we thought he ran to his previous mark [120] and did therefore not increase his rating as a result of that win,' Gray said. 'But it was a very good performance, given the amount of ground he was forced to cover - he certainly didn't have everything his own way and it was a performance that told us a bit more about him... it may well be that he's a better horse than his current mark of 120 suggests.'
Viva Macau raced in France as Dilek for his owner-breeder, the Aga Khan, before being sold to Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun. He will give the Europeans a helpful handle on measuring our classic generation, given the promise he showed when second to Floral Pegasus in the Classic Mile.
'Viva Macau was certainly going on strongly at the finish,' Gray said. 'When he was in France with Alain de Royer Dupre, he showed his ability within his first two starts but then improved steadily as the season went on, winning his Group Three (Prix Daphnis) at the Derby Trial distance of 1,800 metres.'
Likely field: Floral Pegasus (rating 120), Down Town (115), All's Well (113), Viva Macau (108), Supreme Class (107), Survey Survey (106), Growl (104), Puerto Rico (97), Plastic Polymer (95), Vital King (95), Alpha Mail (94), Sikander (94) Champions Gallery (93), River Jordan (92). Reserves (in order): Supreme Gains (92), Tom's Six (92), Infinite Delight (91).
The latest session of the inquiry into the positive out-of-competition test returned by the filly Sydney Owner, trained by Andreas Schutz, took place at Happy Valley yesterday. After hearing more than three hours of additional evidence, the inquiry was further adjourned to a date to be fixed.
