Encountered was eyecatching in second place at Happy Valley on Wednesday (HKJC)
Brett Crawford’s third runner in Hong Kong finished second today at Happy Valley after his first two runners had finished second and third respectively in the first two meetings of the season.
Lyle Hewitson scored his second win of the season and Karis Teetan scored a double.
Luke Ferraris remains on one win for the season, while Keagan de Melo is yet to get off the mark.
Karis Teetan’s two wins were for top trainer Danny Shum and he was also aboard Brett Crawford’s runner up finisher.
Crawford competed in the last race, a Class 2 Handicap over 1650m with his highest rated inmate, the 90-rated Irish-bred Churchill gelding Encountered. This horse is a Gr 3 winner and was rated as high as 114 at one stage, but had gone completely of the boil, with two fourths being the best he could manage last season. His rating had been in free fall. In today’s race he was showing a Tote dividend of about 10 at the off. Jumping from a draw of six, Teetan settled him in midfield. In the straight it was easy to see why Encountered had reached such a high rating, because he ran on exceptionally well with big strides for a 0,75 length second. The winner Lo Rider finished fourth in the Hong Kong Derby and the first two were well clear of the rest. Crawford has clearly got Encountered firing again and he could win next time out if he comes through this run alright.
Hewitson was aboard the Australian-bred four-year-old Royal Meeting gelding King Lotus in the sixth race, a Class 4 event over 1200m. The Mark Newnham-trained gelding had won second time out in three starts last season and went off at a dividend of 6.20 today. Jumping from draw seven King Lotus was outpaced early, but with a wall of horses competing for the lead Hewitson had plenty of room to manoeuvre and took the horse to the rail. King Lotus traveled sweetly and crept up rounding the turn and managed to turn sharply which gave him a clear run down the inside. He ran on well to win by 1,75 lengths and make it two wins from four starts.
