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Hong Kong Cup preview

Another classy feature at Sha Tin, this time the Hong Kong Cup, featuring some top echelon middle-distance horses. Once again, it's over to Dan Munn @chalkbeater with the preview.

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Hong Kong Cup

Once more unto the the breach, dear friends, once more, and Cirrus des Aigles is bidding once again to enhance his consistent, determined record from Europe in this year's renewal of the Hong Kong Cup.

As expected, concerns are being propelled from many corners on just whether the star gelding will handle the supremely fast conditions of the Sha Tin track and, like many, I want to take him on again in this race.

Endowing enters the race as the trial winner, but failed to impress me last time in the manner of his victory, but the performance of Akeed Mofeed when running from way off the pace was one key performance to note.

Formerly with John Oxx, Akeed Mofeed has slowly been coming to hand but is starting to improve with every start and figures to be a strong player in this Group 1 contest. It is worth noting that the owners of Akeed Mofeed could've opted to enter their other runner, Gold-Fun, in this race and he would've been a very strong fancy in this contest, but instead they have opted to run that charge in the Mile contest and allow Akeed Mofeed the chance to shine here.

Military Attack has struggled in local contests of late, and despite the polarised opinion as to whether those performances were merely trial runs as the trainer looks to keep Military Attack's strong performance in reserve for this race, I would not be one to advise on backing Military Attack at such a short price given the recent performances.

Finally, the chances of Blazing Speed are drastically under-rated who, at 33/1, poses a fantastic bet given his record over the ten furlong trip.

In recent trials over a mile, Blazing Speed has looked lacklustre in performance, but his chances over ten furlongs, with considerations made on his likeliness to be tracking off of a slow early pace, go up considerably and he could be the dark horse of the whole race.

Selections
3pts AKEED MOFEED 9/2 (Generally)
1pt EW BLAZING SPEED 33/1 (Paddy Power, Bet365, Ladbrokes)

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