The likelihood of a soft tempo and a replay of the way the Hong Kong Derby was run gives the John Size-trained Fay Fay his chance this afternoon to repel the foreign challenge in the Group One Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2,000m).Everything about this year's QE II Cup says that tempo and position are going to hold all the keys to the winner, and that is a space where Fay Fay (Douglas Whyte) and the Aidan O'Brien-trained Treasure Beach (Jamie Spencer) have the right stuff.Hong Kong Der
The likelihood of a soft tempo and a replay of the way the Hong Kong Derby was run gives the John Size-trained Fay Fay his chance this afternoon to repel the foreign challenge in the Group One Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2,000m).
Everything about this year's QE II Cup says that tempo and position are going to hold all the keys to the winner, and that is a space where Fay Fay (Douglas Whyte) and the Aidan O'Brien-trained Treasure Beach (Jamie Spencer) have the right stuff.
Hong Kong Derby winners don't have the greatest of records in the race as they rise from the four-year-old races, which are virtually Class One events, into the open Group One company of the international stage.
Even some impressive Derby winners of days gone by have found the rise too much for them coming on the back of peaking for the classic, and Fay Fay could hardly be described as one of the more impressive winners of the race, but what he does look like getting is a similar running style that will play against many of his most dangerous older rivals.
It is always tricky to declare that such and such a race has no pace and will be slowly run - the gates fly open and it becomes obvious that everyone has done their homework and that no-one is about to let such declaration pass without notice.
www.racing.scmp.com