Hong Kong Spot Plays: Celebrate an extra hour of sleep

Guess what? There is an advantage to the start of daylight savings time!

Setting our clocks forward by an hour is a bit of a nuisance, but once you switch, it means the weekly Wednesday racing action at Happy Valley in Hong Kong will take place at a more reasonable time. You can catch the opener at 7:15 a.m. (ET) instead of 6:15 a.m., giving you an extra hour of sleep before the card begins.

To celebrate, we’ll make the opener one of our two Hong Kong spot plays this week:

Race 1: Wan Chai Gap Handicap (Class 5, 7:15 a.m. ET)

#1 Ka Ying Brilliance isn’t a frequent winner — he’s just 1-for-18 lifetime — but the speedy son of Canford Cliffs has spent the vast majority of his career racing against tougher Class 4 company. He finally dropped into a Class 5 handicap on Feb. 5 and finished a close second over the dirt track at Sha Tin, beaten just a head while toting 131 pounds.

Ka Ying Brilliance will receive a weight break while returning to grass on Wednesday, carrying just 126 pounds thanks to the 7-pound weight break afforded by jockey Alfred Chan. In a race with very little speed on paper, Ka Ying Brilliance has the tactical speed to be a factor from the outset, giving him every chance to emerge victorious from this competitive heat.

A win bet on Ka Ying Brilliance is definitely in order, but we’ll also play him in a hefty quinella with #2 Galaxy Racer, who stretches out to 1,650 meters after finishing second over 1,400 meters at Sha Tin last month:

• $13 to Win on #1 Ka Ying Brilliance
• $13 Quinella: 1,2

Race 3: Thomson Handicap (Class 4, 8:15 a.m. ET)

Reigning champion trainer John Size appears to have #1 Dor Dor poised for a peak effort in this 1,650-meter Class 4 handicap. The 4-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding produced a sharp rally from mid-pack to win over this course, class, and distance on Jan. 22, and his two runs since then have been deceptively solid. He rallied from behind a slow pace to finish second on Feb. 5, and though he could only manage a seventh-place effort three weeks later, it wasn’t Dor Dor’s fault by any means. He was hopelessly buried behind runners down the homestretch and never got an opportunity to lengthen his stride while beaten just 1 3/4 lengths.

For Wednesday’s race, Size has enlisted leading jockey Joao Moreira to ride. Moreira was aboard when Dor Dor reached the winner’s circle three starts back, and his return to the saddle suggests Size is expecting a winning performance.

Let’s bet Dor Dor to win and play him on top of a trifecta emphasizing #3 Charity Wings and #4 Sunny Power underneath:

• $26 to Win on #1 Dor Dor
• $1.30 Trifecta: 1 with 3,4 with 3,4,5,12 ($7.80)
• $1.30 Trifecta: 1 with 3,4,5,12 with 3,4 ($7.80)

Good luck!