There were 9 Barrier Trials run at the Conghua training facility this morning and with 69 horses running, it would be a colossal task to try to analyse all of the form. As a small side note, Medic Elite, whom I mentioned in an early summary of the barrier trials, did land a 1,000m trial this morning and is worth noting on his first run of the season. However, there was really only one reason to watch the trials this morning and that was to see the performance of Victor the Winner. He has an official rating of 124 and is easily the best horse to have run in any of the trials so far this season. Danny Shum's charge spent the whole of last season running in all of the top sprint races, most notably when winning the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup in January at Sha Tin and another similar campaign looks very likely.
In each of the last 2 seasons, Victor the Winner has been victorious on the opening day of the Hong Kong season, including a win in the Chief Executive's Cup 12-months ago, the feature race on the first day at Sha Tin, when he lowered the colours of Lucky Sweynesse. Whilst there is only so much that can be read into any performance in a Barrier Trial, this mornings evidence from his comfortable success in the opening race would suggest that he is being primed for a repeat performance in 13-days time. He cantered to victory today, recording the fastest time of 57.09s (0.7s below the course standard time) and shaped like a horse who is not far from his peak. Whilst a 3/4 length victory over the 73-rated Atomic Force may not be anything exceptional on paper, the time and speed figure is and there was clearly a lot more "under the bonnet" should Derek Leung have needed to ask the question. As we build up to the new season, now less than 2-weeks away, he is one of the first horses to have on side.
Here are the comparison figures for all of the Barrier Trial winners over 1,000m this morning;
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