What separates the night all-weather meetings at Sha Tin from the common garden all-weather races is the track pattern, and that should allow the Sean Woods-trained Free Judgement to land an overdue success in the D'Aguilar Peak Handicap (1,650m) tonight.Often at day meetings, the value of racing forward and close to the rail is priceless on the dirt, with any horse pulling out to the centre in the straight finding himself in quicksand. Some are never seen again.At night meetings, though, that p
What separates the night all-weather meetings at Sha Tin from the common garden all-weather races is the track pattern, and that should allow the Sean Woods-trained Free Judgement to land an overdue success in the D'Aguilar Peak Handicap (1,650m) tonight.
Often at day meetings, the value of racing forward and close to the rail is priceless on the dirt, with any horse pulling out to the centre in the straight finding himself in quicksand. Some are never seen again.
At night meetings, though, that pattern changes and it is when we see the all-weather at its fairest - horses lead and win, horses run-on and win, with tempo more important than pathway.
At the most recent dirt meeting in May, there were victories nearer the rail but more than half of the winners ran on out in the centre of the track. If we are getting something similar tonight, then run-on horses should have the last race at their mercy.
The pace sets up well for run-ons, with horses pressing forward at the start from inside (Super Pistachio) to outside (Sky Mascot) and quite a few in between.
Free Judgement (Howard Cheng Yue-tin) is a winner on the turf at 1,600m, but most of his best efforts over the past year have been on this surface.
He was fourth to rival Aomen (Douglas Whyte) in June, but was never on the track from a wide draw and did well to finish where he did while the winner had a perfect trip. (www.racing.scmp.com)