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, ‘Banker’, ‘Racing Horizon’ and ‘Horse Racing – Results’.

Tokyo Racecourse – Track Analysis (Tenno Sho Autumn):

On top of its ample track width, and a long homestretch that almost reaches 525m, the Tokyo Racecourse also features its own version of sweeping turns, and deep closers with explosive late speed would find it as effective to pounce home from out wide. That being said, with an uphill drive from some 300m out, all the way to the finish, front-runners at Tokyo have to open up against their competition at the top of the lane, or find it an insuperable task to wire the field. Overall, this is still a fair track with no particular penchant towards any running style, where closers only get a slight edge on a typical race strategically run in Japan.

In the 2017 running of the 2000m Tenno Sho Autumn, when the turf was listed as soft, eventual winner KITASAN BLACK broke sluggishly and trailed at the back early, but with a ground-saving trip, he was gradually gaining on the field by midway; taking command at the top of the stretch, he dug down deep to stave off SATONO CROWN's challenge for a thrilling score, while RAINBOW LINE, blue-printing a similar trip as KITASAN BLACK, shifted to the middle of the track down the lane, and rallied late for third in this prestigious G1 contest.

Despite continued sunshine as of late, rain is forecast for Tokyo this weekend, and thus soft turf may be on deck for this year's running of the Tenno Sho Autumn. When the track was listed as firm for the recent race meeting at Tokyo on 21st October, speed horses that saved ground on the rail were dominating their competition - a trend that would persist, should the track be fast this weekend.

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