CHAMPION trainer David Hill has his team in great form, as is his wont at this time of the season, and his Beyond Control looked in seriously good form when working strongly at Sha Tin yesterday morning. Hill is very much a last-third-of-the-season man, given the patient way he brings his horses to full fitness. Beyond Control is in many ways the exception to Hill's normal style of training as he bolted home at the first time of asking when making a belated seasonal reappearance a few weeks ago. Since then he has run a good second to the well handicapped River Treasure down the straight 1,000-metre course and yesterday he went as well as he's ever gone when working to the line with stablemate and last-start winner, Splendid Feeling. Beyond Control appeared to go as well as his Class Four-rated galloping companion who must be a big chance in the third race tomorrow. So if Splendid Feeling goes well then Beyond Control backers can wade in with even more confidence. Generally, it is a very important meeting tomorrow with the second of the three sprint championship events. It is particularly important for Hill as his stable star, River Verdon, is coming out for the first time since his luckless fourth to Motivation in the International Cup. The big horse is competing in the feature Centenary Cup down the straight and yesterday he worked in tip-top form for John Marshall when simply dominating the good Class Two performer, Mustang. This was slightly different work given that it was Marshall on board rather than Marcus, with Marshall just clicking up River Verdon to pull clear. The response was immediate and while 1,000 metres down the straight is about 1,000 metres too short for River Verdon, he is in exceptionally good form and ready for a prolific end-of-season campaign in the Gold Cup and Champions and Chater Cup. With Winning Partners massively favoured by the set weights condition of the Centenary Cup, it only appeals as a betting race if you fancy an outsider or a crack at the quinella and/or tierce. Neville Begg has brought his International Bowl hero Winning Partners back in super shape while a number of the others in this event, as befits a Class One sprint championship contest, are also working out of their skins. Kadbridge has never gone better. He loves racing down the straight course in his trials and yesterday he blitzed the good worker Derby Gazelle in a jump out from the barriers with Tornadic Win. Few horses have been so consistent or tough and determined as Brian Kan Ping-chee's Happy Guy and Right Way over the course of the season. Both seem to be in fine fettle for the Centenary Cup with preference for Happy Guy given the way they have worked together twice this week and given his tremendous effort to run fourth in the International Bowl. Kan's Sound Print hasn't impressed in his work with this pair but his African Warrior should go close in the second, given his work and trials. In other work yesterday, Patrick Biancone's newcomer Hong Kong Supreme indicated that he is a big quinella chance in the fifth when clearly having too much speed for Famous Arch in a pleasing piece. The unbeaten Hong Kong Supreme has also gone well in his trials leading up to his debut and looks exactly the kind of new stock that Biancone requires to reassert himself. Biancone's Jade Signet went as well as he's gone for some time and is worth bearing in mind in a weak-looking second event, despite his bad draw. The improving King Prawn also did all that was asked in a good piece with Super Fellow who looks to be finally ready to do something. For the third, Determinater seems to have come back to his best for Stephen Leung while Stellar Express went nicely when easing clear of Hercules, though there is a grave danger of Stellar Express being a work horse rather than a race horse. Peter Ng Bik-kuen's Oriental Power is ready to improve significantly on his first-up effort in tomorrow's P & O Challenge Cup while stablemate Gold Capture continues to progress in his work and should be there in the last.
