Benno Yung Tin-pang's unraced four-year-old Lovely Delovely has some quirks to go with an abundance of obvious talent and continued his progression with a solid barrier trial at Happy Valley yesterday.
After three trials in New Zealand and a couple for his new trainer, two things were obvious: that Lovely Delovely could gallop, and that it was going to take some time to get the gelding race ready from an education standpoint. In fact, that much was clear even before his first trial for Yung. On the way to the barriers for a Sha Tin turf trial, jockey Zac Purton did a good job to stay seated as the horse wheeled around and nearly threw himself on the ground at one point.
Lovely Delovely trialled well on that occasion, but then two weeks ago put in a mixed display on the dirt, jumping well to box seat, before racing greenly - coming on and off the bit around the bend and then dropping out meekly late. Hopefully a trip across town on the horse transport will be beneficial, and his behaviour on the way to the gates was certainly better yesterday. Certainly his racing manners were spot on, Purton put him straight in front and he travelled well without pulling. In the only 1,000m heat of the morning Lovely Delovely ran 59.8s, with a final 400m split of 23.5 as he led all the way.
Lovely Delovely's sire Falkirk is a son of Tale of the Cat and, as such, had some idiosyncrasies of his own. He raced erratically at times during a career that included a couple of Group Two wins in Australia and a fourth in the King's Stand Stakes.
Falkirk seems to have developed into a "Hong Kong sire" - that is, the deeds of his progeny on the racetrack here are outstripping his achievements where he stands in New Zealand.
Falkirk has had 10 runners in Hong Kong, with seven of them winning races - David Hall's Solar Great winning six races, along with Keen Marie, Best City and Maroon Price. A couple yet to be seen at the races are Regency Ho Ho and Lovely Panda - both trialling like future winners of late. But the most successful son of Falkirk to race here is 2011 Group One Hong Kong Derby winner Fay Fay, which carries the same purple and green silks as Lovely Delovely, Alexander Wong sharing ownership in both horses.
On Friday another wayward customer regained his ticket to go back to the races, John Size-trained Omotesando (Joao Moreira) cornering well after a last-start failure as favourite and a horror trial to follow that.
Omotesando, a winner of a three-year-old maiden in New Zealand, finished last in his local debut when sent out 3.3 favourite, the gelding racing greenly before offering little in the finish. Veterinary reports indicated nothing by the way of explanation and stewards ordered him back to the trials. He was even worse in a dirt trial two weeks ago, hanging so badly off the bend that he took a few runners wide with him.
On Friday Moreira managed to keep him on course although he still didn't look entirely at home going right-handed.
Others to keep tabs on from the trials this week were Packing Llaregyb, Dibayani, Sun Pins, Why Why and Solar Dragon, who should win off his mark soon in Class Five.
