Pocketful Of Money takes handicap / Shaving Points looks unbeatable / Danny wins again
Favourite Natural Nine landed the Sports Chosun Cup at Seoul Race Park this afternoon, holding off the fast finishing Nice Champ by a length. The 2.0 shot, ridden by Park Soo Hong made it 6 career victories out of 13 starts. The early running was made by Kkumui Mugyoel (13.6) until Lee Shin Young brought Nokhaji (14.0) around the field to the front in the back straight, a tactic that has worked well with the six-year-old in the past. Nokhaji led until inside the final two furlongs when Natural Nine opened out the sprint. Woo Chang Gu on Nice Champ (7.9) and Moon Jung Kyun on Mansebose (8.9) finished faster but the line came just soon enough for Natural Nine to take the trophy with Nokhaji in fourth place.
On a day when in excess of 60,000 people took advantage of the finest day of the year so far and came to the track, once the Sports Chosun ceremony was over, the days’s feature handicap got underway and it was another victory victory for a favourite, this time Pocketful of Money (2.7) giving Moon Se Young his second win of the day, scoring a length’s victory over Seoul Teukgeup (5.2), the two of them eight lengths clear of the rest. Second-favourite Haengeun Daewang (4.8 ) was clearly feeling the effects of the handicapper, the top-weight leading early on but fading badly in the straight to end up eleventh.
One of the most exciting prospects on the track at the moment is Shaving Points and the three-year-old son of Pure Precision made his third start since arriving in Korea in January. Stepping up in both distance and class, the 1.6 favourite found the going just as easy as in his previous two outings as he cruised to a five length victory over 1700 metres ahead of Mupae Jilju (5.1) and giving Ikuyasu Kurakane his second winner of the day following a win in race 5 on Jayaduri (12.1). There was also a dominant win for Bonny Bee (5.0) who led from start to finish of a competitive KRW 27Million 1400 metre race 8.
Down at Busan, Danny Craven won his second big handicap of the weekend with a fine ride on favourite Boryeong Bulbit. Sitting at the back of the field for the opening stages of the KRW 42Million 1800 metre race, Craven steadily brought Boryeong Bulbit (2,2) towards the front but finding himself boxed in as they rounded the final turn, had to take a very wide line to find a winning run. Once he did, however, Boryoeng Bulbit showed his class with a blistering final furling securing a four length win from Choego Jangseong (10.7) and Haeil (5.8 ) to make it 8 wins out of his last 10 runs.
Horse Racing in Korea 