Title race brewing as Moore, Lor and Size hit the mark
A championship battle is brewing in Hong Kong and John Moore believes his stable is bubbling to the challenge.
“The title will go to the last day in my opinion,” the handler said after the Zac Purton-ridden Buddies streaked home in the opening Class 4 Kiu Tsui Handicap (1650m) on Sha Tin’s all-dirt card tonight, Wednesday, 8 May.
The victory took Moore’s season’s tally to 54, pushing him briefly into clear second in the premiership race just six behind defending champion John Size.
“I’m ecstatic about getting that win up to keep the stable winning numbers rolling,” he added, having left the track with a treble at the weekend.
Moore went into this evening’s eight-race fixture with nine wins from his last 50 starters, a strike rate of 18%. Size, on the other hand, had pocketed four wins from his latest 50 runners – an 8% strike rate.
“The championship is wide open, the next two weeks will be a telling factor with respect to the premiership, how entries fall into place, what gates you draw, what jockey you have on board,” Moore said.
“You have to remember that John (Size) and I have horses at Conghua so we do have the benefit of that in numbers. I’ve got 15 to 20 horses rotating and those horses have given me the feeling that coming over here they’re going to do very well and that gives us a very good chance of winning the premiership.”
Size will be tough to overcome though. The nine-time champion struck back when Ping Hai Star prevailed in the finale, the Class 3 Clear Water Bay Handicap (1650m), under Joao Moreira.
Moore and Size are not engaged in an exclusive duel for top spot either. Second-season trainer Frankie Lor, runner-up to his old boss Size last term, looks likely to make it a closely-matched ‘three-horse race’ even without the benefit of Conghua.
Lor took his total to a Moore-matching 54 wins when Glorious Artist won race six, the Class 2 Cafeteria Handicap (1650m) under Purton. And he regained second spot in the table when Coby Oppa ensured a race-to-race double under Karis Teetan in the Class 3 Cheung Sha Handicap (1200m).
“It’s hard to say, it depends on the horses,” Lor said when asked about his championship chances. “I don’t want to push them too hard. I’ll see how the horses are, they come first.”
As for Buddies, Purton fired the Moore-trained three-year-old to the fore from his wide berth in gate 12. The thrice-raced maiden fulfilled the promise of a recent barrier trial to kick clear for a two and a half-length score at odds of 4.2.
“The horse had very good natural speed and the outside gate was something of a positive because of tonight’s conditions – it’s very sloppy out there and there’s a lot of kickback, which some horses won’t enjoy,” Moore said.
“He got to the front, set his own speed and was able to really enjoy the rhythm he was in. Coming to the corner I thought there was only one horse sitting in behind him that might be able to overhaul him but my fella had plenty in the tank. It wasn’t necessary for Zac to give him a few smacks.”