HKJC
NZB Festival Sale graduate Best Step provided jockey Zac Purton with one of four wins at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.
A $3,500 purchase from Sunny Hill Farm's 2015 draft, Best Step won the Class 3 Wistaria Handicap (1200m).
Trainer Caspar Fownes believes that Best Step could become a Hong Kong Airlines Million Challenge contender after the four-year-old returned a winner and scored his first points in the annual series.
“He was first-up so I think he’ll come on for that,” Fownes said after the Cecconi gelding made all to hold Charity Glory by a neck. “He’s a dude of a horse, he’s such a gentleman. I think he’s an ideal Valley horse, in my mind I had the Million Challenge as a prospect for him but he’s going to have to step it up a notch after that. Hopefully he can do that.”
Racing returns to Sha Tin on Sunday (1 October), where the first stakes races of the season – the G3 National Day Cup (1000m) and G3 Celebration Cup (1400m) – headline the 10-event card. -HKJC