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’.

Seoul Racecourse – Track Analysis (Korea Sprint & Korea Cup):

The Seoul Racecourse features a pair of sand tracks, with an 1800m outer oval enveloping the 1600m inner course, while both strips measure 30m in breadth with homestretches that go a full 400m from the top to the finish. This year's edition of the Korea Sprint will be staged, as per customary, on the outer oval, whereas the Korea Cup field will utilize the bulk of the inner course – until they swing it out onto the outer oval for the 400m stretch drive.

With no apparent undulations, starters for the 1200m Korea Sprint will, in fact, break slightly downhill through a 350m backstretch before hitting the far turn. Turning for home, the field will race to the finish over an entirely – yet still subtly – uphill homestretch, and with that sweeping far turn in play, horses still rate a good chance even when they get parked wide on the four or five path. As for the 1800m Korea Cup, with the starting gate placed only 250m from the first turn, outside-drawn runners are almost deemed to lose ground right from the break.

Of such configuration that is not intuitively generous at all against front-runners, late closers on this sand strip still have their fair share of kick-backs to deal with, thus a typical sprint, generally speaking of in Korea, still favours runners that scramble for the early lead with a clean, antiseptic trip. Meanwhile, for a two-turn route as the Korea Cup, cheap speed up front that is short on stamina would still be reeled in by on-coming closers.

In the 2018 running of the Korea Sprint, the eventual tierce – MOANIN, Hong Kong’s FIGHT HERO, and DORAONPOGYEONGSEON – were all dropping back early before launching their bids in deep stretch while opting for the overland route the whole way, clearly signalling a different kind of track bias in play on that particular race day; yet lo and behold, LONDON TOWN, who prompted the early pace, put on a show to demolish the field by fifteen emphatic lengths in the 2018 Korea Cup.

With continued precipitation that will extend through Sunday, a muddy or even sloppy strip at Seoul would be on deck for this year’s running of both the Korea Sprint and the Korea Cup, which definitely poises to be huge factor upon the final selections.

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