The new season in Hong Kong will get underway at Sha Tin in just under 2-weeks time and the build up to the 2024-25 campaign continued this morning, with a set of Barrier Trials at the track. All eyes were on the 110-rated Mugen, who made his first appearance of the new season as he prepares for another campaign at the top of the sprinting division. He finished 6th in the opening Barrier Trial over 1,200-metres, but we really can't read anything into that as he stayed wide throughout and shaped like a horse who is still some way short of peak fitness. He ended the last campaign with Group 3 success in The Premier Cup at Sha Tin in June and his connections will surely be hoping that he can climb further up the ladder this time around, with a 3rd placed finish in the Chairman's Sprint on Champions Day the highlight of his career so far. The trial was won by his stablemate, Aeroinvincible, who showed a decent turn-of-foot under Zac Purton to get to the front in the early stages and then cruised home to win with what looked to be a fair amount in hand. He is a lightly raced 4-year-old by Per Incanto and although we can never read too much into this type of race, I was impressed by his performance nonetheless and he has gone into the tracker for the opening weeks of the season. A mark of 59 may well prove to be lenient in the weeks ahead on this evidence.
Here are the full set of results and speed figures from this mornings trials:
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