David Hayes is excited about the prospect of two of his sons saddling a Group One Hong Kong Mile runner at Sha Tin later this year, but before that Lindsay Park’s modern-day patriarch hopes Allgreektome wins when he faces Class Three company for the first time at Happy Valley on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Mr Brightside won Australia’s only fan-voted race, the A$5 million (HK$26.25 million) All-Star Mile, at Moonee Valley under Hong Kong-based jockey Luke Currie, and Hayes says the galloper’s trainers, Ben and JD, intend to set him for the 1,600m component of Sha Tin’s international day.
“He’s going to defend his title in the [Group One] Doncaster Mile [next month], and the boys are going to target the international races in December,” Hayes said regarding Mr Brightside’s short- and long-term aims. “It’ll be nice to see him up here, hopefully.”
Rated 64 following one win and two seconds from his first five assignments, Allgreektome has a long way to go if he is going to contest an elite-level event, but Hayes believes his last-start victor’s star is rising ahead of Wednesday’s Class Three Hollywood Handicap (1,200m) in which 500-time Hong Kong winner Vincent Ho Chak-yiu steers him from barrier 10.
“The progressive horses go up in grade, down in weight, and they’re pretty hard to beat. We saw that with Victor The Winner on the weekend,” Hayes said.
“[Allgreektome] is starting to do things correctly now. He’s back on the C+3 [course], where he’s performed really well. He’s just got a bit of an awkward gate, but he does have wonderful gate speed.”
It was on Happy Valley’s C+3 track four weeks ago that Allgreektome shed his maiden tag, leading all the way under Ho to score by two lengths. He bids to post back-to-back wins after spending half of the time since his first victory away from Sha Tin.
“It was a month between runs, so I thought a trip to Conghua was good for him. Working on those beautiful grass tracks can only help,” said Hayes, who liked what he saw in Allgreektome’s trial last week.
“We put ear muffs on him and he was very relaxed. The trial was more about seeing if he could sit behind, and he did it really nicely,” Hayes added, before advising punters not to redraw their speed maps.
“He possesses wonderful gate speed, so I don’t think we’ll change much [on Wednesday]. If he’s not leading, he’ll be in the first three.”
Another participant who expects improvement from a last-start winner is Jerry Chau Chun-lok, who teams up with Gorytus in the Class Two Arbuthnot Handicap (1,650m), the highest-graded of Wednesday’s races.
Chau and Gorytus shocked most Happy Valley punters on February 8 – Danny Shum Chap-shing’s resuming miler was the $32.30 10th favourite to win on his first start since July 13 – but the Dubai-bound jockey is confident the result was not a fluke, plus he thinks drawing an outside gate is a positive for his mount.
“I rode him in trackwork yesterday and he felt well,” Chau said. “Class Two means he’s got a light weight compared to last time, which will help him.
“He needs to be very relaxed early – you can’t push him too much. If he can settle down, he can have a very good finish, so barrier nine is good for him.”
Comments
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
