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’.

Tokyo Racecourse – Track Analysis (Yasuda Kinen):


On top of its sprawling track width, and an approximately 525m stretch run, the Tokyo Racecourse also features its own sweeping turns, and deep closers with explosive late speed would as well pounce home boldly from out wide. That being said, with a challenging uphill drive some 400m to 300m out before the finish – front-runners at Tokyo have to shake off their pursuing competition at the top of the lane, or find it an insuperable task to wire it home. Overall, this is still a fair track with no particular penchant towards any running style, while closers only get a slight edge on the way that a typical race is strategically run in Japan.

For the featured 1600m Yasuda Kinen, the field will have a full 400m stretch run on the backside before hitting the only turn, thus runners still have plenty to time to either drop towards the rail or sought for cover, and a high stall number is still more than manageable.

In the 2018 running of the Yasuda Kinen, when the track was listed as firm, MOZU ASCOT, dropping way towards the back of the pack early, launched a furious drive to slice through the field and closed the deal, while AEROLITHE and SUAVE RICHARD, in touch with the main speed for most of the trip, could only settle for second and third respectively.

With intermittent showers that will give way to sunny skies just in time on Sunday, this year’s edition of the Yasuda Kinen would hopefully be contested on firm turf. Reviewing the recent meeting at Tokyo on 26th May, ROGER BAROWS, the eventual Tokyo Yushun winner, did capitalize on the blistering early fractions set by the pacemaker, while racing second himself, then took command midway through the stretch and held off all closing bids – yet again, should the ground be listed as firm, runners sent to the front early will still get a slight edge.

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