Manfred Man Ka-leung's three-year-old Spicy Sure followed up his surprising local debut with a solid trial outing on the Sha Tin dirt yesterday and seems set to continues his trainer's excellent season.
Man had a double last Sunday to move to 28 wins and maintain outright sixth place in the trainers' championship and Spicy Sure (Douglas Whyte) seems a likely type that could add at least one more victory before the end of the term.
Spicy Sure was raced by his current owner Wong Man in Australia and it took the A$55,000 purchase seven starts to qualify for a Private Purchase permit, scraping in with an easy win in a moderate maiden at Hawkesbury over 1,300m.
At his local debut, after three trials and off a rating of 66, Spicy Sure did a great job to chase home dominant winner Strathmore after his momentum was halted momentarily after straightening. The run has attracted the services of Douglas Whyte, who partnered the son of Casino Prince in a 1,200m trial on the all-weather track.
Spicy Sure went back from a low draw first-up but Whyte had the youngster sitting up in the box seat yesterday before peeling around the leaders and working his way to the line easily to score by two lengths to track specialist Grand Plus in a time of 1:10.42s.
Whyte was aboard another three-year-old trial winner in the next heat as Me Tsui Yu-sak's 2016 Hong Kong Classic Mile prospect Sky Hero scooted away with a similar sit-and-sprint display in a 1,050m work-out.
Those who are eagerly awaiting Sky Hero's next outing will have to wait until the 74-rated gelding passes a stalls test after he was fractious in the starting gates before the trial.
Sky Hero has won two from four so far, both victories coming over 1,400m, with those wins bookending a narrow defeat to Line Seeker over the distance in the Griffin Trophy.
