BEAUTY APPLAUSE & TEAM SPIRIT

11th May 2016

Double delight for Price Bloodstock at Sha Tin on Saturday, with one promising youngster breaking his maiden and another galloper confirming that he has really got things back on track.

Beauty Applause put the writing on the wall at his first race start in March, when he did some work from a wide gate before finishing fourth over the Sha Tin 1200m, and John Size had taken things slowly with the three-year-old since, so he was 10 weeks between runs for his second appearance but made no mistake at odds-on.

He wasn’t impressive got the job done under Joao Moreira, leading from soon after the start and Size sees plenty of improvement to come.

“He’s very new at this stage but winning at your second start isn’t that easy and it shows he has got plenty of upside as he gets experience and learns what it’s all about,” Size said.

Team Spirit was in a similar position 12 months ago when he broke through to win his third race start and looked to have a nice future but lost his way early this season before trainer Chris So gave him some time off and worked out the issues.

On Saturday, he won his second race for the season in Class 3 and jockey Chad Schofield says Class 2 should not be beyond him.

“I remember how impressive he looked winning as a three-year-old but when he came back for this campaign, I was riding him early in the season and he just didn’t seem to have his heart in it,” Schofield said after the latest all-the-way win. “I think Chris found some soreness in Team Spirit’s back, didn’t run him for a couple of months and got that all sorted out and, since he began racing again, he’s had 5 starts for 2 wins and 2 seconds, so he’s really got him back on track. He had top weight today and the outside barrier but was still too good, so I don’t think he’ll be out of place going up to Class 2 with a light weight and he can win again.”