With the year about to change from 2011 to 2012, the 1010 Happy Valley Million Challenge is also ready to move into its more serious phase and joint leader Regency Winner will be hoping to stretch his lead at the meeting tomorrow night. The competition has been running since September and still has two months to go, but that is akin to approaching the home turn as, with a surfeit of Sha Tin meetings during the holiday periods, there will be only eight more Valley fixtures after tomorrow night's card and opportunities to post points will narrow. The Tony Cruz-trained Regency Winner holds the joint lead with Super Plus in the chase for the HK$650,000 first prize, after landing two wins, a second and a fourth in the annual contest open to Class Three and above in races staged at Happy Valley. A third win in the last race would take Regency Winner to 54 points, a score that has been historically tough to beat, but other serious contenders are opposed to him looking for the same points. The Ricky Yiu Poon-fai-trained Lunar Reflections has 36 points after two Valley success and a second, while Peter Ho Leung's Mr Bond is also in the fray with 23 points, but connections will be keen to claim some major points ahead of his opposition tomorrow night to make sure he stays in the game. In last year's Million Challenge, 57 points was enough for Turbo King to claim first prize ahead of Fun Rider on 53 points and Cheer with 50 points. Racing fans who need to catch up on their barrier trial replays can do so with Trials From The Grass tonight. The latest edition of the popular review programme will air on ATV World at 12.35am and on Cable TV on both Channel 64 and HD 204 at 8.50pm tonight.
