Hong Kong Preview: H Z Tourbillon ready for bold effort

#9 H Z Tourbillon can shake off last season’s blues and win the 1,200-meter (about six-furlong) Tai Shue Wan Handicap at Happy Valley on Wednesday.

H Z Tourbillon looked like he’d make a decent fist of the Hong Kong scene when he first began racing in early 2021. After a miss on the Sha Tin dirt, he went to Happy Valley and rattled off a win, a third, and a second in three more starts that season.

However, things definitely did not go his way in his four-year-old season. He was a long last of 12 on his return to racing in January, was eighth of 12 a month later, and then returned in July for one more race, finishing seventh in a 14-horse field.

That pushed his rating back to Class 4 level, but he showed a return to form when resuming at Happy Valley Sept. 14, rattling home from well off the pace to finish second, a neck behind Winning Icey.

That form looked better again when Winning Icey graduated to Class 3 company with some ease, scoring an easier victory in better company.

H Z Tourbillon also gets the advantage of drawing closer to the fence in gate 3, and if he can get a little closer to the pace without too much early effort he can go very close.

#4 Xponential has rarely run a bad race in the last year, finishing no worse than sixth in 13 starts since July 2021. He began the 2022-23 season with a solid fourth to Beauty Glory Sept. 14, and though Beauty Glory didn’t follow through with the form at his next start, he was caught wide, and Sept. 14 runner-up Igniting was in the money again last week.

#1 Drops of God bounced back from a bad start to begin the new season well by finishing second to Street Scream Sept. 21. He also gets a better draw this week and has Zac Purton aboard to help him.

#2 Namjong Sings, #5 Adios and #6 Stoicism are others to consider for exotics.

• $10 win/$40 show: #9 H Z Tourbillon
• $1.30 trifecta: 4, 9 with 1, 4, 9 with 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9

Bonus play — New Zealand

Waverley, Race 8, Peko Contracting, 1,650 meters (about one mile)

• $20 win/$30 show, #3 Soldier Boy: Not too far off the better three-year-olds last season and begun his four-year-old campaign with a nice victory. Looks capable of repeating.