Caspar Fownes is throwing everything at winning the trainers' championship and he can tick up one more victory in pursuit of John Size in the Hong Kong Riding For The Disabled Association Cup (1,000m) at Sha Tin today withDisciples Twelve.
Fownes has always displayed a keenness on backing up horses quickly when they are fit enough to cope with it and Disciples Twelve (Tommy Berry) is one example amongst several from his yard today.
Disciples Twelve returns just six days after he finished off very strongly into third, chasing home his long-priced stablemate Victory General over the same course in Class Four.
In that race, Disciples Twelve drew barrier four, had to work across to a midfield spot early, then and copped some minor interference in the midstages before rattling off a very strong finishing sectional to be beaten only half a length.
Crucially, today he goes to a much more advantageous barrier eleven and, with the return to Class Three, plummets from 133 pounds to 117 pounds after Berry put up a pound overweight.
The pace sets up as being on the outside rail, with Dane Patrol the nailed on leader from gate 14 who should find the front immediately out there, and everyone else will be riding their race off him.
Ideally for Disciples Twelve there would be some pressure on the front end, with the likes of Art Of Success(Christian Reith), Fun 'N' Games and Human Torch working forward and across, while Pleasant Knight should be showing speed from gate thirteen.
That confluence of factors should enable Disciples Twelve to simply land in the right chasing spot today and accelerate more quickly under the lighter weight as the on-pace runners start to tire late.
In a race without many really positive back stories, Andreas Schutz-trained Sugar (Joao Moreira) is the form horse with two wins from two attempts this campaign and is also coming out of Class Four. (www.racing.scmp.com)