Andrea Atzeni continued a blazing form run to slot a treble as Jamie Richards posted his first double of the season to share training honours with Mark Newnham at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.
Atzeni’s sizzling strike rate continued with a three-timer, teaming with Mark Newnham’s Crimson Flash (118lb) to land the first section of the Class 3 Violet Handicap (1200m), Giant Leap (119lb) for Ricky Yiu in the second section of the Class 3 Violet Handicap (1200m) and A Americ Te Specso (116lb) for John Size in the Class 3 Chamomile Handicap (1650m).
Boosting his haul this season to 43 wins, Atzeni has slotted 17 wins across the past 11 meetings as Crimson Flash collected a PP Bonus of HK$1.5 million.
“It’s good going, we hit the ground running but I’ve had good support,” the Italian said. “It’s always nice to come racing with good chances and because I can ride light, it makes my job a little bit easier especially with horses like Crimson Flash, who was up in class with a light weight.
“He looks like a nice horse and the plan was to go forward, but he jumped slow but Plan B worked out.”
Atzeni’s strength and timing were apparent on both Giant Leap and A Americ Te Specso, who delivered Size’s 48th win of the campaign and a seven-win lead over David Hayes (41) with Yiu (38) next.
Newnham continued an excellent season with Fatal Blow’s impressive win in the first section of the Class 4 Dianthus Handicap (1200m) under Luke Ferraris to have 36 wins for the term, while Yiu was delighted with Giant Leap’s triumph, showing rare emotion in victory.
“It’s not often you see a horse win straight away from Class 4 to Class 3. The biggest encouragement, like I said to the jockey, he was 15 pounds lighter and he’s racing fit. He’s a very genuine horse at the Valley,” Yiu said.
“You haven’t seen the best of him yet. He’s still got something in the tank. In the closing stages, I yelled and shouted and the officials (in the weigh-in area) were surprised – they said: ‘You haven’t yelled for a long time, not even for a Group 1′.”
Richards boosted his seasonal tally to 15 wins, having endured a string of near misses with 18 seconds and 20 thirds and was clearly relieved after Iconical and Sunday’s Serenade scored under seven-time champion jockey Zac Purton.
“It’s been a pretty tough old struggle to be honest, but hopefully we can get things going again. It’s not the sort of place you want to have a lean spell in, but we’re working hard, made a few little changes and hopefully we can be strong towards the end of the season,” Richards said.
Iconical led all the way to land the first section of the Class 4 Thistle Handicap (1650m) while Sunday’s Serenade ran on strongly from the tail of the field to snare the Class 4 Ewo Challenge Trophy Handicap (1650m).
“We probably weren’t in the positions we thought we would be with both horses,” Purton said. “With Iconical, preferably we would have liked to get cover but he came out strongly and nothing was going forward so he took himself to the front.
“He was quite eager through the first couple of sectionals until he started to relax and in the straight, he was quite one-paced and out on his feet but he’s lightly-raced and did a good job in the circumstances and hopefully he can go on.
“Sunday’s Serenade did the opposite. I got a little bit further back than I thought I would be and, as it turned out, the pace was strong and it suited him and he came with a strong run. He’s another one who’s turned the corner – it’s taken him a few runs – but he’s going the right way now.”
Lucky Planet swept to successive wins with a four-length romp in the second section of the Class 4 Dianthus Handicap (1200m) for Cody Mo. Urged to the front by Matthew Chadwick, the Pariah gelding ran his rivals ragged to continue the form which delivered a solid Sha Tin victory on 23 March.
Benno Yung posted his 100th winner at Happy Valley when Hong Kong International Sale (HKIS) graduate Day Day Victory finished powerfully under Alexis Badel to land the Class 5 Aster Handicap (1000m).
“That’s great,” Yung said of the milestone. “This horse is a late maturer, so I think he can still improve. He has just taken time to mature.”
Wednesday’s success boosted Yung’s career tally to 354 before fellow HKIS purchase Management Folks paraded his stamina with a tough win in the Class 4 Bellflower Handicap (2200m) under Karis Teetan for David Hall.
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