A switch to Happy Valley and a low draw on the C+3 course should help Beauty Love (NZ) (Dylan Thomas) return to the winner's enclosure in the opening leg of the Triple Trio tomorrow night.
Beauty Love won't know himself jumping from gate two after a series of wide draws and the Tony Cruz-trained three-year-old looks well positioned to take advantage with the rail out.
Quite simply, Beauty Love has never drawn anything resembling an inside barrier and after jumping from barrier seven on debut in a griffin race in December, he has been particularly unlucky at the random barrier draw.
After drawing gates 13, 13, 13 and 11 at his last four starts, yet winning once, placing another and running reasonably well on the other two occasions, slotting into gate two should mean slightly less work early and that could turn out to be key.
Whatever the perceived bias, a lower draw usually works in a horse's favour on the C+3 course, and Beauty Love looks the right type for the circuit on his first trip there.
After a strong win two starts back over 1,800m at Sha Tin, a step up to 2,000m proved too tough a month ago, and 1,800m on the smaller track looks much more appealing.
Punters will have to ignore a poor barrier trial on a sodden all-weather track last week, but there wasn't much to be gained by pushing the young horse along with some pretty smart types in those conditions and Purton sat up over the closing stages. -SCMP
Beauty Love won't know himself jumping from gate two after a series of wide draws and the Tony Cruz-trained three-year-old looks well positioned to take advantage with the rail out.
Quite simply, Beauty Love has never drawn anything resembling an inside barrier and after jumping from barrier seven on debut in a griffin race in December, he has been particularly unlucky at the random barrier draw.
After drawing gates 13, 13, 13 and 11 at his last four starts, yet winning once, placing another and running reasonably well on the other two occasions, slotting into gate two should mean slightly less work early and that could turn out to be key.
Whatever the perceived bias, a lower draw usually works in a horse's favour on the C+3 course, and Beauty Love looks the right type for the circuit on his first trip there.
After a strong win two starts back over 1,800m at Sha Tin, a step up to 2,000m proved too tough a month ago, and 1,800m on the smaller track looks much more appealing.
Punters will have to ignore a poor barrier trial on a sodden all-weather track last week, but there wasn't much to be gained by pushing the young horse along with some pretty smart types in those conditions and Purton sat up over the closing stages. -SCMP