The John Size-trained Real Specialist has just about come to the end of the line as far as handicaps are concerned and the Group Three Chinese Club Challenge Cup (1,400m) today at Sha Tin can be the race that kicks him upstairs to the big time. There have been other Size-trained gallopers that strung together good winning sequences in the early part of their careers and took themselves to the top grade faster, but Real Specialist (Douglas Whyte) has helped his own cause by getting home by only n
The John Size-trained Real Specialist has just about come to the end of the line as far as handicaps are concerned and the Group Three Chinese Club Challenge Cup (1,400m) today at Sha Tin can be the race that kicks him upstairs to the big time.
There have been other Size-trained gallopers that strung together good winning sequences in the early part of their careers and took themselves to the top grade faster, but Real Specialist (Douglas Whyte) has helped his own cause by getting home by only narrow margins on most occasions.
Thus his ascent up the ratings has been slower and he has already banked eight wins, perhaps nine after today's annual New Year feature, before having to take on the likes of Ambitious Dragon on a regular basis at level weights.
Real Specialist will measure up competitively when that happens, perhaps in the Stewards' Cup, but he will get the right springboard by taking out the Chinese Club Challenge Cup.
The 1,400m is probably not his ideal distance yet, paradoxically, it is his most successful, with four wins and a second from only five attempts and Real Specialist's talent most recently over the trip has simply been to get home first.
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