You have to hand it to the Hong Kong handicappers- there are some extraordinarily tight finishes these days and it ensures the racing is always exciting (read as "racing the crowds will be encouraged to come and watch").

It was a heavily polluted day in Hong Kong today (the joys of a fast approaching winter when the winds change direction and our 8 cigarettes a day of 'passively ingested particles' turn clear summer horizons to a brown pea soup fog with minimal visibility courtesy of all number of factories in the Pearl River Delta and a country that can't seem to deal with the environmental risk that the "Made in China" label has attached to the gold lining of everyone's pockets). The racing, at least, was first class.

I hadn't had time to analyse the form so accepted an "odds or evens" bet from a friend (we were level at 5 each after the 10th - I won the last), the trainer/jockey combination of John Size and Douglas Whyte ably assisting us both - and the traditional punters - by winning a remarkable 4 races on the card.

The Class 1 over 1400m was the highlight of the day. Danacourt (Danasinga ex Frizzle by Pompeii Court) marked the books as "definitely one to keep an eye on" after his oh so easy 3 length win made it 3 wins from 4 starts. Another potential top liner - the John Moore trained Joyful Winner (El Moxie ex Northen Tycoon by Last Tycoon) ran the last sectional in a blistering pace as he passed almost the entire field and is another to mark. The ever consistent Sirocco (Shy Tom ex Ma Lettre by Mountdrago) ran third. They clocked 1.21:8 for the 1400m and when you consider that the race average is 1.22:4 you can start to see why crowd and commentators alike were adopting superlatives ranging from "a phenomenal win" to "utterly dominant" to "demolished opposition" to "spaced his rivals" .... Remember, this was on a day when the HK handicappers had most other races down to a photo finish.

One can't mention today without also paying credit to the trainer and connections of the UK horse Alkaased - a scratching from the Arc and also the Breeders Cup earlier this year due to niggling injuries - he came to Japan and did what most foreign horses typically fail to do - won the prestigious G1 Japan Cup. Three champions were entered in the race - defending winner and 2004 Japanese Horse of the Year Zenno Rob Roy, 2004 European Horse of the Year and North American champion Ouija Board, and 2004 European champion three-year-old Bago (Fr). Alkaased held off Heart's Cry by a nose and ran the 2400 metres in 2:22.1 to shave .1 second off a 15 year record held by another international raider - the New Zealand mare Horlicks.

Back to HK - and it's 2 weeks til the HK Internationals and Tuesday's barrier trials will have a small army of fans in attendance as world champion sprinter - Silent Witness- will be tested to see if he has fully recovered from the effects of a virus. He certainly remained the focus of discussion amongst various groups at Shatin today.