David Hayes has named three-year-olds My Mars and Happy Promise as the best of his seven-strong line-up at Sha Tin on Sunday as he bids to keep in touch with the leading team in the trainers’ championship.
Six wins behind championship leader Danny Shum Chap-shing with 48 this term, Hayes is confident he can strike on Sunday with My Mars in the Grade Three Standard Chartered Renminbi Business Handicap (1,200m) and Happy Promise in the second leg of the Grade Four Standard Chartered Sustainable Finance Handicap (1,400m).
Irish import My Mars looks set to continue his good start to his Hong Kong career after a strong win on his home debut and closing second to Turquoise Velocity in the last start.
“I can’t see him running a bad race from the fourth barrier,” Hayes said.
“He’s run three good Grade Three races, but he’s done really well because at his age, if he wasn’t contested, he could have been in the Griffin race. So that’s a good effort and he’s held his level, so I can’t see him running a bad race.”
A two-place finisher before being known as Unbreakable Duke, My Mars finished strongly to take a solid first win at $29.9 before missing out on a win in his latest appearance.
He will again be carried by Brenton Avdulla when he takes on a pair of other promising three-year-olds, Elite Golf and Cool Boy, Star Rise and a quartet of local debutants, including Australian Group Three winner Titan Pegasus.
Trainer David Eustace believes Titan Pegasus, who won the Blue Diamond Prelude (1,100m) at Caulfield when it was known as Field Of Play, will need to run.
“He’s settled in well. The tests have generally been good, but he’s definitely testing like a horse that’s still inexperienced,” Eustace said.
“He hasn’t raced a lot and he hasn’t raced for a long time, so he’s looking to run him but he’s definitely going to need it.”
Happy Promise finished fourth on debut behind major winner Mr Incredible last month and Hayes will be hoping for an improvement on second time around.
“He wasn’t (too far from the second horse) and gave the impression that the 1,400m would be better,” Hayes said.
“He has a fourth barrier with James McDonald, so with natural improvement, he should be competitive.
“I’m expecting him to be in a good position. He’s studied well, he’s studied well, his tests between runs were good so with that barrier, he should run well.”
Oriental Surprise, Mega Awesome, Best World, Let’s Have Fun and Akashvani are Hayes’ other Sha Tin runners.
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