from RACING POST HKJohn Size has shown himself to be adept at switching his horses successfully from the turf to the all-weather track and that may help G-One Winning crack a frustrating run of outs in the Chek Keng Handicap (1,200m) at Sha Tin today.After winning his first three starts over 1,400m in Classes Three and Four, G-One Winning (Douglas Whyte) has not quite appeared to go through with it at the business end of that distance against higher-grade horses.He has had legitimate excuses in

from RACING POST HK

John Size has shown himself to be adept at switching his horses successfully from the turf to the all-weather track and that may help G-One Winning crack a frustrating run of outs in the Chek Keng Handicap (1,200m) at Sha Tin today.

After winning his first three starts over 1,400m in Classes Three and Four, G-One Winning (Douglas Whyte) has not quite appeared to go through with it at the business end of that distance against higher-grade horses.

He has had legitimate excuses in a number of those defeats, including last start when he was forced to race wide before finishing fifth to King Of Reason.

There wasn't a great deal wrong with that and there is no doubting G-One Winning's consistency, but Size is clearly trying something different to get him winning again.

Last season we saw Size switch horses like King Mossman, Delta Hedge and O'Halo from the turf to the dirt with good results coming immediately, and earlier this season Bundle Of Love was a winner at the first time of asking when switched to the artificial surface.

G-One Winning's sire, Magic Albert is also the sire of Vital Flyer, who was quite talented on the dirt early in his career so the pointers are there for G-One Winning to return to winning on the surface.

But, as ever, the state of the all-weather track itself is a major obstacle and whether horses are able to run on and be competitive is something we will know only after seeing earlier races.

No one expects the track to play as the one-lane highway it was when wet-slow conditions were exacerbated by unevenness due to the timing of track maintenance procedures.

On paper, there looks plenty of speed and the speed is drawn off the track, which might normally set up for a horse sitting off the pace, which is where G-One Winning is likely to be. He has some tactical speed at 1,400m but dropping back in trip and drawn out, Whyte's options look to be steadying off the pace and let the four-year-old find the line, or let speedy Happy Index (Gerald Mosse) and Cosmic Boom (Brett Prebble) drag him forward from their adjacent draws. (racing.scmp.com)