3 minute read

California Spangles lived up to the hype at Sha Tin on Sunday.

The son of Star-spangled Banner was a very short-priced favourite in Race 9, the class 2 Handicap over 1200m.  Zac Purton was on board and as they got to the 300m mark Purton said "let's go" and they won going away from the rest of the field.

Trillion Win 25.0 and Winning Dreamer 12.0 were in a tight finish for second and third with the result coming in that order.

Moreira had a good day with 4 winners.

The racing was held behind very closed doors as following an owner testing positive at Happy Valley the following three meetings could only be attended by fully vaccinated staff, racing officials and licensed persons.  There's been a bit of chatter over Caspar Fownes being unvaccinated but as he says it's all a bit of a nonsense when he and other unvaxed people can attend trackwork.

There was a treat for Melbourne racegoers on Saturday when California Memory joined Twilight Payment as special ambassadors on the track.  Both horses reside at Living Legends these days and both looked as if they could participate in the races without any problem.