Sha Tin: Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Classic Mile (Group 1) 1m, turf, 4yo
LAST year's 2,000 Guineas fourth Xtension finished second to Lucky Nine(Caspar Fownes/Brett Prebble) in the Hong Kong Classic Mile at Sha Tin on Sunday.
The first of potentially several Group 1 successes for the Dubawi gelding was entirely expected; he came into the set weights test with plenty in hand over his rivals on official ratings and punters queued round the block to make him a 4-7 favourite for his first crack at the distance.  

Aided by a low draw, Prebble put Lucky Nine intoan ideal trailing position in fourth through the initial sections of the race before calling upon his mount's renowned acceleration to settle matters in the straight.

Xtension (John Moore/Darren Beadman) had been taken back to near the tail of the field from a wider gate and ceded four lengths to the winner at the top of the straight, but still he finished very strongly to reduce the margin to a length and a quarter at the line. With the Derby in mind, this was indeed an excellent trial by Xtension.  

The first four past the post were all formerly trained in Ireland or Britain. The winner began his career with County Tyrone trainer Andrew Oliver as a two-year-old.

Treasure Lands, third home despite being the lowest rated member of the field, raced as Gardening Leave for Andrew Balding and won the Listed Newmarket Stakes on the Guineas supporting card.

Fourth-placed Outdoor Pegasus, meanwhile, carried the moniker of Kavak as a juvenile in 2009 when trained by Marco Botti.  

The Classic Mile is traditionally the first major of two major preps before the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby, yet Fownes was unwilling to outline any immediate plans for Lucky Nine, leaving some doubt regarding his participation in the February 20 Classic Cup over 1m 1f, never mind Hong Kong's richest domestic prize at 1m 2f a month later.

"This is a very exciting horse. He's certainly an international Group 1 horse of the future. It's very good for Hong Kong racing that we've got a horse like this around," he said.

Though he did not answer the question directly, it could well be that Fownes believes that Lucky Nine, clearly a superb sprinter-miler, might not strongly see out the Derby distance. If that is so, he might well be tempted to drop him back in distance for the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup over 7f on March 6 and consider the Champions Mile late in April.  

In any case, thetrainer has already identified the Classic Cup and Derby for the highly regarded stable companion Let Me Handle It.  

Trainer David Ferraris might well have left the track contemplating the Derby as well - albeit the 2012 edition - after his progressive Liberator (Douglas Whyte) left a terrific impression by taking out the Class 3 Dyer Handicap over 1m 1f in a smart time. The progressive three-year-old has now won his last three starts by an aggregate of more than 11 lengths - quite a rare feat in the usually competitive local grades.   

Never one to be outdone when it comes to promising horses of the future, John Moore chipped with a double thanks to Sovereign Falcon and Captain Sweet with Darren Beadman doing the steering on both.

Irish import Sovereign Falcon - formerly Armour when trained by Michael Grassick - justified his odds-on quote to win the Class 3 sprint very easily, while Captain Sweet extendedhis unbeaten record this term to five when defeating the John Size -trained favourite Flying Blue for the third consecutive occasion.      
Neil Callan, soon to return to Britain, had a winner earlier on the card when Chantily took a 1m handicap.
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跑唔掂會唔會同蓮華生輝單挑，之後再撼締造美麗