from RACING POST HKPunters will be looking for an easy recipe for finding winners on the treacherous Happy Valley "C+3" course tonight and keeping it Simple looks the key to the Mercury Handicap (1,200m).Invariably, fans swarm around the inside draw horses on the "C+3" and it's pretty understandable. Two thirds of the winners are drawn six or lower on the widest Valley rail, and Simple (Zac Purton) coming up with the rails gate just made the form horse of the final race an ev
from RACING POST HK
Punters will be looking for an easy recipe for finding winners on the treacherous Happy Valley "C+3" course tonight and keeping it Simple looks the key to the Mercury Handicap (1,200m).
Invariably, fans swarm around the inside draw horses on the "C+3" and it's pretty understandable. Two thirds of the winners are drawn six or lower on the widest Valley rail, and Simple (Zac Purton) coming up with the rails gate just made the form horse of the final race an even stronger prospect.
There's certainly no disputing the strength of his form. Two starts back the grey went eyeball-to-eyeball with Frederick Engels over this course and came up second best, but not by much, and Frederick Engels has continued to win thereafter to confirm the strength of that race.
At his next outing, Simple again finished behind Frederick Engels but had excuses for finishing sixth on his all-weather debut.
Slowly away from the starting gates, Simple was then stuck on a limb in midfield and that is rarely a good place to be on the artificial surface.
Trainer Dennis Yip Chor-hong has had a chance to freshen Simple up since that night in November, and gave him just a quite trial on December 15 at the Valley as a tune up for this.
Purton, who was on Frederick Engels when he beat Simple in October, now jumps on the grey for the first time but there shouldn't be too much complexity to the mount.