'It's pleasing to see the improvement made in just one year'
The HK$3 million Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby Trial at Sha Tin has taken a quantum leap, in terms of quality, over its 2006 counterpart, with the likely field having an average rating of 102 compared to last year's more modest figure of 95.
However, despite its modest origins, the subsequent form of last year's winner Hello Pretty has ensured the race has been given the appropriate respect and, although currently tagged as a domestic Group Two, it actually exceeds the quality of the recent Group One Classic Mile using average ratings as the barometer.
The Jockey Club's new chief handicapper Nigel Gray said this sort of measurable improvement is exactly what the club has been looking for as it attempted to make the programme for four-year-olds more attractive to owners.
'The Mercedes-Benz Derby Trial was run for the first time last year and it's very pleasing, from the club's point of view, to see the improvement that's been made in just one year on a number of indicators,' Gray said. 'Apart from the average rating having gone up seven pounds, the top-rated horse Floral Pegasus is rated 16 pounds higher than his counterpart in 2006, Sunny Sing, while the rating of the lowest-rated horse has lifted from 83 to 92.'
Like most racing fans, Gray has enjoyed watching the emergence of the highly-bred Classic Mile hero Floral Pegasus and was suitably impressed by the authority of that victory after the chestnut travelled wide and without cover throughout.
