Sha Tin Betting Guide 2022-23

Built in 1978 in the Sha Tin district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, Sha Tin Racecourse is Hong Kong’s premier track and hosts the vast majority of Hong Kong’s black type races, normally on Sunday afternoons local time (around midnight to 7am Sunday morning ET).

Sha Tin has two clockwise tracks. The lesser-used is the dirt track – sometimes called the all-weather, a term that can be misleading to foreign audiences as the surface is basically a standard US-style dirt track and not the artificial surface that is usually associated with the term “all-weather”. It has a circumference of 1,560 meters (about 1,706 yards, or 0.97 miles), with a 380-metre (about 415-yard) home stretch.

The more frequently used turf track, on the outside of the dirt track, is 1,900 meters (about 1 3/16 miles) in circumference, with a 430-meter (about 470-yard) home stretch. It has two straight chutes at the end of both the front and back stretch. The back stretch chute extends enough to allow 1,600-meter (about one mile) and 1,800-meter races to be staged with a single turn, which begins about 850 meters (about 930 yards) from the finish line. The home stretch chute allows races over 1,000 meters (about 5 furlongs) to be staged on a straight course. Races over 2,000 to 2,400 meters (about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 miles) begin in the home stretch and are staged around two turns.

The only variation to this comes with the movement of the rail; at the rail’s innermost position, the track is 33 yards wide, and it is 20 yards when the rail is furtherest out.

The track is flat and generally fair to all horses, with a slight uphill incline in the home stretch. It holds up extremely well even in heavy rain.

In general, barrier draws are fair for all horses. On the turf course, there is a slight advantage to an inside draw at the 1,200-meter and 2,000-meter starts as they are closer to the first turn than other distances and inside horses don’t have to cover so much ground going wide around the turns. But statistics show a marginal advantage at best. The biggest advantage is probably at the straight 1,000 meter course, where horses drawn on the outside (nearest the outside stand rail) have an advantage as they gallop on the least-used parts of the track.

On dirt, the sample size of races isn’t as large so conclusions are more difficult to draw, but it is difficult to detect a clear advantage.

JOCKEYS

Hong Kong has some of the best jockeys in the world, but the clear kings of Sha Tin are Zac Purton, an Australian native, and Joao Moreira of Brazil. Between them Purton and Moreira have won the Hong Kong jockey premiership nine times.

Last season the pair were tied on wins going into the last raceday of the season, but a four-timer for Purton gave him his fifth title. It was especially meritorious given he missed a few weeks in December after a fall on Hong Kong International day.

Their dominance is such that Purton won 20% of his rides on the Sha Tin turf last season, while it was 18% for Moreira. No other jockeys had a winning percentage better than 12%.

However, their perceived dominance is such that it’s arguable punters can be led astray. Figures specifically for Sha Tin were not available, but in Hong Kong overall, both Purton and Moreira rode twice as many favorites as they did winners (272 favorites vs 136 winners for Purton, 274 vs 132 for Moreira). The moral here is to be judicious when selecting horses ridden by the two topliners.

The jockeys with the best records on favorites last season were Matthew Poon (21 rides on favorites for nine wins, a 43% success rate) and Matthew Chadwick (22 rides on favorites for 9 wins, or 41%).

Outside the big two, the rider making the biggest impression has been Karis Teetan. Born in Mauritius and champion apprentice in South Africa, Teetan has crept up the rankings since his Hong Kong arrival, and won major races last season aboard Romantic Warrior. Vincent Ho has seen his profile improve with his handling of champion galloper Golden Sixty, while former champion French apprentice Alexis Badel has quickly become an in-demand rider.

Frankie Lor may have won the overall Hong Kong premiership last year, but on the Sha Tin turf he played second fiddle to his former boss, 11-time champion John Size. The Australian led the win list at Sha Tin with 46, one clear of Lor and three clear of two-time overall champ Tony Cruz. Lor did however have a slightly better win percentage.

Unlike with Purton and Moreira, punters don’t blindly follow the leading trainers. Most trainers had similar numbers of favorites and victories.

However, perhaps the most interesting statistic here is around Frankie Lor. Across all Hong Kong tracks he was the only trainer to hit a winning percentage of 40% with his favorites. No other trainer got past 35%, that being Francis Lui.