Francis Lui heads into Wednesday’s (15 July) season finale at Happy Valley with seven chances across six races in the hope of pegging back Ricky Yiu’s four-win lead in the trainers’ championship.
Yiu sits on 67 wins, while Lui is joint-second with Tony Cruz on 63, who himself needs all four of his entrants to win to have any chance of securing the title.
“I’ll try my best – I think it all depends on luck at this point, most of my horses have a good draw and they’re in good condition,” Lui said.
Victoriam highlights Lui’s seven runners. The gelding contests one of the night’s two highest class races, the Class 2 Cheong Ming Handicap (1200m), in search of his fourth win from his last five starts.
Australian ace Zac Purton, who on Sunday secured a fourth champion jockeys’ title, will again take the reins. The pair will break from gate seven in the 12-runner field.
“It was a very solid effort last time out, especially off the rating he was on – I thought he might be on his mark a little bit but to do it in the fashion that he did suggests that there might be a little bit more there again,” Purton said.
The I Am Invincible gelding arrived in Hong Kong in 2018 as an unraced PPG (Privately Purchased Griffin) and has since notched five wins from 13 attempts, to reach a career-high mark of 93.
“It’s not easy when you get to this grade but if he can just get up there in a nice handy position, he’ll give himself a chance again,” Purton said.