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The first domestic Group race to be run at Sha Tin this season, the Sha Tin Trophy is also the first big 'prep race' for horses whose trainers are plotting campaigns with the Hong Kong Mile, Hong Kong Cup and Hong Kong Vase and the Triple Crown races in mind. It is reserved for horses rated in excess of 90 and is increased in value from HK$2.1 million last season to HK$2.3 million this year.
With the Hong Kong International Races the ultimate early season goal, plenty of Sunday's runners already have the Chevalier Cup (Premier-1600m) and the Pok Oi Cup (Premier-2000m) in November earmarked to hopefully provide the wins and ratings increases necessary to make the cut for Hong Kong's greatest day of racing.
Indigenous, the former Horse of the Year and runner-up in this race twelve months ago was another horse noted eating up the ground in the straight on his seasonal bow over an inadequate 1200m to show that he is still very much a class act. In the Happy Valley Trophy (Gr.3-1200m) last week he was at the rear entering the straight before sprouting wings to finish just one and a quarter lengths off the winner, Solid Contact. Judging on that run, we are bound to see him in the thick of it again on Sunday.
Racing fans will also witness the return of last season's Hong Kong Derby (Gr.1-2000m) winner and Champion Middle-Distance Horse Industrial Pioneer to the track in this event. He is set to face six horses which he beat during his finest hour last March - Citizen Kane, Red Pepper, Red Sun, Idol, Helene Vitality and Meridian Star - and the shorter 1600m trip shouldn't detract too much from his performance on his reappearance.Oriental Express, another former Horse of the Year, was third here last year. The dual winner of the Hong Kong Champions & Chater Cup (Gr.1-2400m), he is being primed for the Hong Kong Vase, like Indigenous, his stable companion. Also like Indigenous, he also raced with credit in the Happy Valley Trophy last week as well, finishing just three and a quarter lengths off them at the line. This effort backed up a strong front-running performance in the National Day Cup (Premier -1400m) though he had to settle for eighth place, chasing Fairy King Prawn home four and three quarter lengths in arrears.
Citizen Kane, who ran out a most impressive 7 lengths winner of the PCCW Cup (Premier-1400m) in June, lost his chance at the start of the National Day Cup with a very tardy exit. Still, he was only beaten three and a quarter lengths and he should still be a force to be reckoned with here.The dual Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup (Gr.3-1600m) winner, Man Of Honour, who was also runner-up in the Champion's Mile (Gr.1-1600m) last season, finished in sixth place, four lengths off Fairy King Prawn in the National Day Cup on his first run of the campaign and with that run under his belt he is entitled to at least match his fourth place run in this race last year.
It's well worth noting that Red Pepper, triumphant in the Champion's Mile last May from Man Of Honour and Red Sun, has never finished out of the first three in four starts over 1600m at Sha Tin. A big run is in store now that he is back to his pet trip after two runs over 1200m and 1400m so far this term.Red Sun finished a good second on his seasonal debut in the Kwangtung Handicap Cup (Cl.1-1600m) behind Survey General with two of Sunday's rivals, Gonlargo and Shaxi Fortune behind in third and fourth, while Idol, having his first run of the since last April. He produced one of the shocks of last season by landing the Hong Kong Gold Cup (Gr.1-2000m) at odd of 50/1 by making virtually all the running. The distance he tackles on Sunday might be a touch short of his best but the fact that it is his first up should help. Helene Vitality, who finished runner-up to Idol on that occasion before a good third-placed run in the Derby on unsuitably soft going, may also find this trip is also a bit too short for him. David Hayes, his trainer, will be very keen for him to do well with another crack at the Hong Kong Vase in mind.
Meridian Star, another runner from the Hayes stable, hardly knows to run a bad race. He ran his heart out in the National Day Cup producing his customary acceleration from well off the pace to get closest to Fairy King Prawn. The last time he raced over this distance he was beaten just a short head by Jeune King Prawn in the Sha Tin Futurity (Gr.3-1600m) last June.
Gonlargo came in third behind Survey General and Red Sun last month in the Kwangtung Handicap Cup and is a Class 1 winner over the course and distance, while Rainbow And Gold made rapid strides last season to finish second in Group 1 company behind Oriental Express (beating Industrial Pioneer, Helene Vitality and Indigenous) before comfortably winning the Queen Mother's Cup (Gr.2-2400m). He is a possible contender for the Hong Kong Vase though he needs to rise in the ratings - this race presents his first chance to do so.Finally, from being 10lbs out of the handicap and with his rider putting up 1lb overweight, Shaxi Fortune ran remarkably well in the National Day Cup to finish third for the in-form Francis Lui Kin-wai stable at odds of 83/1. However, has incurred the maximum 5lb penalty for a run leaving him 6lbs better off with Meridian Star for him a quarter length deficit.
