Leung Ho Yin, Simon's Bio
Simon is a well respected full-time thoroughbred racing commentator specializing in overseas international racing. Bringing with him a wealth of racing knowledge, Simon is the host and race caller for the overseas simulcast programme since 2008/09 season. He is currently the presenter on several racing television programmes including, ‘Racing Horizon’ and ‘Horse Racing – Results’.

Turffontein Racecourse – Track Analysis (Champions Challenge Day):

Johannesburg’s Turffontein Racecourse is a clockwise venue comprised of three strips: a 2700m outer turf course, a 2500m inner turf oval, and a 1200m straight course that rejoins the course proper.

On this Saturday’s Champions Challenge Day – exclusively staged on the outer turf course – while the homestretch extends about 800m from the top of it to the finish, a 1600m trip implicates a slight uphill run towards the 800m marker, while horses also have to switch leads for the far turn at 1400m out. For the featured 2000m Champions Challenge, the field will have a full 600m stretch run before hitting the first turn, and thus horses breaking from out wide would still have adequate time to find their choice spots.

Meanwhile, for the 2450m S A Derby that breaks on the turn, outside-drawn runners are immediately losing ground from the go, and they do have a high chance of getting floated wide early. In contrast, the Computaform Sprint is simply a 1000m all-out dash, and this straight course does favour runners on the grandstand side similar as Sha Tin’s straight races. In the 2017 edition of the Champions Challenge Day, when the turf is listed as good to firm, winners from the afore-mentioned trio of stakes events all rated behind horses in the early goings, then rallied strongly to bring the fields home.

Despite variable weather as of late in the Johannesburg area, local forecasts still call for a gradual return to sunny skies this Saturday, and “good and firm” will hopefully be the order of the day at Turffontein; should that be the case, runners drawing middle or high numbers would be favoured on the straight course, whereas stout closers with sustained late speed should dominate the staying contests.

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