Happy Lucky Dragon Win | Weighting for a proper race doesn't take as long in Hong Kong
A true spread of weights in handicap races makes for exciting and intriguing contests, as witnessed at Sha Tin on Sunday
Sunday's Group Two lead-up events at Sha Tin were a brutal education for some punters on the old adage “weight will stop a train” – or more to the point, horses – and both races gave a glimpse at the benefits of true weight spreads in handicaps.
If trainer John Moore had his way, Military Attack might have been lining up as one of the favourites in last Saturday's Cox Plate, the so-called weight-for-age championship of Australasia.
Instead, the reigning Horse of the Year resumed from a spell a day later at Sha Tin, carrying top weight of 133 pounds over a mile. Moore’s sprinter Frederick Engels lumped the same impost in the Premier Bowl. Despite both having a clear class edge on rivals, neither started favourite and nobody – not Moore, not jockey Zac Purton and none of the normally hypercritical Sha Tin punters – seemed surprised the highly credentialed but heavily weighted runners both finished unplaced.
In fact, everyone seemed happy with their fast-finishing efforts.
Of course, both backmarkers weren’t helped by a hard track playing to the leaders, with the recently seeded surface trimmed so short it looked like it had been given a rough $20 haircut at Mong Kok market.
It was the handicap conditions that truly told, and history shows only the very best can win these types of races with top weight. Modern-day champion Electronic Unicorn is the only horse to have won the Premier Bowl with 133 pounds, while in the Sha Tin Trophy it has been a more common occurrence, but the calibre of winners tell the story.
Dual horse of the year Ambitious Dragon did it last season and California Memory carried 130 pounds a year earlier, while you have to look back to Viva Pataca (2008) and Indigenous (1998) - both all-time greats - as the only other horses to carry 133 pounds to victory in the last 15 years.