Hongkong Great continues to improve

They tossed him into the deep end - and he floundered.

But that was the Lion City Cup and Hongkong Great, still finding his feet in his new surroundings, was not yet expected to be that great.

So, ignore that run.

It just was not his day and Hongkong Great had trouble all the way.

Checked near the 1,000m mark, he raced too keenly in the middle stages and was bumped near the 150m mark.

To compound matters, he showed great dislike for the wet conditions.

Yes, on the day, the underfoot conditions did not do him any favours.

But do not hold it against him. Hongkong Great is better than that.

We saw how, on debut, he finished three lengths - in sixth spot - behind King Arthur in a fast-run Class 1 sprint over 1,200m in 1min 09sec.

And we saw it when he, quite stylishly, won his first local trial.

That was in mid-July. Ridden by Danny Beasley, he ran home a comfortable winner, clocking a not-too-shabby 60.16sec for the 1,000m on the Polytrack.

Yes, Hongkong Great may be - at seven years old - getting a bit long in the tooth.

But, we reckon, he also has a long memory and he still knows how to win races.

The Chilean-bred, who has won eight races, including three at Group level, has still plenty of racing left in him.

And - for the second time - we saw a glimpse of it when he won his most recent trial by a neat length.

That was yesterday. Again, Beasley was the man in charge of the reins.

Jumping from Gate 1, he was quickly into his stride and was never bothered by the niggling presence of AJ Golden Sixtyone who, over the initial 500m, stuck to him like a pesky fly.

Into the straight and Hongkong Great had enough of the companionship.

He shooed him away and strolled home to win by a length.

It could have been even more convincing, but Beasley did not work on him overtime.

He was just happy to get the job done and trainer Ricardo Le Grange would have been equally delighted.

Hongkong Great had done good and all that is left is to plot a course to his next Kranji outing.

If, from that same trial, anyone else jumped out from the page, it would have been Lucky Jinsha.

He was always content to stay away from the speed battle up front and was doing his best work over the final 100m.

Ridden by Wong Chin Chuen, he took second spot, pushing Savvy Command into third.

A six-time winner from 15 starts, Lucky Jinsha has not raced since his unplaced run in a Kranji Stakes B event over 1,400m on April 30.

He is certainly one to watch in his next assignment.

Earlier in the first hit-out of the morning, the unraced Golden Brown served notice of an early win.

Partnered by Vlad Duric, he showed good action to come from a long way back to score.

Trained by Australian Tim Fitzsimmons, Golden Brown was always obliged to travel wide.

Indeed, he was four-wide and in fifth spot when the field straightened.

Gathered up by Duric, he went into overdrive 200m from home.

Picking off the leaders like they were skittles on a bowling lane, he soon found the lead.

A hundred metres out and there were no challengers.

Golden Brown had burnt them to a crisp and, eased down, he cruised to the line to win by 11/2 lengths.

His time for the 1,000m was 61.44sec.

It was not as swift as the 60.41sec he clocked when winning his first Kranji trial.

But, if there was anything, his connections would take away from that showing it would be the fact that Golden Brown has the makings of a good racehorse.

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 Yesterday's Kranji barrier trial results

TRIAL 1

1 Golden Brown (V. Duric)

2 Supreme One (K. A'Isisuhairi)

3 Raging Brave

4 Winning Power (B. Pinheiro)

5 Raising Sixty-One

6 Bestseller (D. Beasley)

Margins and time: 1 1/2, nk, 3/4, ns, shd (1 min 01.44 sec)

1 Ksatria (P.H. Seow)

2 Briggs (J. Bayliss)

3 Bright Era

4 Always Innocent (M. Kellady)

5 The Star (Duric)

6 Battle Win (I. Saifudin)

7 Super Extreme

Margins and time: Shd, 7, 3/4,

1 1/2, 8 1/4 (1:01.41)

1 Hongkong Great (Beasley)

2 Lucky Jinsha (C.C. Wong)

3 Savvy Command (M. Akmazani)

4 Silent Is Gold (R. Fahmi)

5 Aj Golden Sixtyone (Saifudin)

6 Big Green Hat (Kellady)

Margins and time: 1, 1/2, shd, hd, 5 3/4 (1:00.63)