Veteran sprinter Lucky Nine could be a surprise starter at the first meeting of the season on September 6 and trainer Caspar Fownes dropped another bombshell by announcing apprentice Jack Wong Ho-nam will ride the seven-time Group One winner should he line up at Sha Tin.
Lucky Nine would likely be assigned top weight in the HKSAR Chief Executive's Cup and Fownes is hoping Wong's 10 pound claim helps his rising nine-year-old's chances in the season-opening feature.
"Lucky is really well in himself and that's a race where we could use the claim," Fownes said. "It takes the 10 pounds off, and that would make him extremely competitive at his best."
The only concern for Lucky Nine is what Fownes termed some "back tightness" for the tough-as-teak gelding. "We'll get the chiropractor to go over him and he should appreciate that," said Fownes, adding he had no concerns with Wong's relative inexperience.
"He is an easy horse to ride - although of course, he has his quirks, including missing the start at times. We will put Jack on and get the horse to jump out of the gates on Monday, and provided he is fine, it will be all systems go."
Fownes was delighted with news on Tuesday that the Jockey Club confirmed an eligible race for highly rated dirt-specialist Gun Pit - who the trainer has aimed at the 196.32 million yen (HK$12.7 million) Group One Japan Autumn International Champions Cup at Chukyo on December 6.
Jockey Club head of racing Bill Nader said an 1,800m Class One would be added to the programme in November. Gun Pit has won six from six on Sha Tin's dirt track and had seemingly run out of options at home. "That's great news, because he could be anything on the dirt - we could have a Group One horse on our hands," Fownes said.
"We considered heading to the Breeders' Cup [in the US], but he didn't really have the rating he needed for that, but it is something we could look at in the future. He is still a young horse and here in Hong Kong, history tells you that our horses improve with age. We can look at Dubai with him in March next year."
For the second straight year Fownes received a high-profile stable transfer - this time Divine Calling coming via trainer Tony Millard. Divine Calling burst on to the scene last season with a dominant Class Two win but subsequently failed to live up to the significant hype that facile victory generated.
"I'm really happy with him, it's early days, but the plan is to build him up, we'll give him a trial at the end of next week and assess things," Fownes said.
In other news, champion jockey Joao Moreira will contest the World All-Star Jockeys Series at Sapporo this weekend, skipping Saturday's annual preseason carnival at Sha Tin.
