Speed Racer can give Chang tally a boost
Trainer Michael Chang Chun-wai is enjoying a bumper season and can add to his career-best total of 22 wins with Speed Racer in the opening leg of tomorrow's Triple Trio at Sha Tin.
With the main prize expected to swell to a whopping HK$45 million, Speed Racer may seem a risky banker play to kick off the TT, but he has been finishing his races off with plenty of zest following a drop into the bottom grade in January.
He had shown nothing in his first three runs in Class Four, before showing improvement when dropping to this class with three eye-catching efforts over 1,400 and this course and distance (1,600m). The four-year-old finally gets options in the run from a better gate for premiership leader Brett Prebble
Speed Racer returns to side winkers for this run and, off a likely softer trip from gate six, the grey will be hard to keep out of the finish.
Wait For Me is backing up after a solid fourth last Sunday behind Noble De Best in Class Four and can simplify first-leg calculations. Joyful Years, Cover Boy, Pacific Alliance, Super Ideal and Touch Lucky are worth considering for a placing.
In the middle leg, Elite Fortune has been knocking on the door, including a closing second two starts back behind Lucky Photo Frame over this course and distance on wet ground after moving to Tony Millard. He looks a standout after a nice grass trial win 11 days ago.
Headsiwin has been finding the line better with each run and is down 18 points to an attractive mark for his Class Four debut. With Vincent Ho Chak-yiu's 10-pound claim well utilised, he can play a dual-banker role.
Amazing Venture, Kowloon Pride, Touch Chic, Gold City and My Way can fill a placing.
Precision Magic is stepping up in distance (1,800m) and grade, but has finished well to rack up two wins and two seconds over the mile on the dirt, and is a solid banker in the final leg with apprentice Keith Yeung Ming-lun claiming a crucial seven pounds.
Win Practitioner, who has come down plenty in the ratings, has put the writing on the wall with two fast-finishing thirds over the all-weather mile. He will relish returning to this trip and will be rolling late for Prebble, who had been the regular partner of Precision Magic.
Chater D'Cat, Great Hero, My Whisky, Ample Gains, Bucaneer and Upside Of Anger are other worthy contenders.
