After a quiet season, Cruz to unleash stars of the future

It has not been a vintage year for the Tony Cruz yard despite picking up some nice races but the dual championship winner looks ready for a bumper 2007-08 and is set to give racegoers a preview today with the likes of Leading Ahead in the HKSAR 10th Anniversary Cup (1,600m).

Cruz has a strong final day line-up which includes rising, lightly raced horses - Luckyme, Great Guy and Regency Dragon - but this season has also seen him unveil other topliners of the future - Royal Prince, Helene Brilliant and O'Reilly Rally - and the coming season looks bright.

And his hopes for Leading Ahead (Marco Chui Kwan-lai) must be at least as high looking towards next season and the likelihood of his blossoming into a Hong Kong Derby prospect.

His form in Australia already includes winning performances from 1,200m to 2,200m as he won four of his first five runs. He was then taken across to be tried against the better horses of his age in Melbourne at carnival time but didn't have circumstances to suit and may well have been past his peak by then.

The colt has done enough at his new environment at Sha Tin to say that he will become one of the better four-year-olds in the coming 12 months. He won a fairly average Class Two first time out and showed good application when failing to handle the soft ground second-up.

But it was his third start that really confirmed his promise, when narrowly downed by Rocket Win on the all-weather course in Class Two.

There were no excuses but he fought like a tiger before failing by an eyelash to hold off one of the form dirt horses of the season.