Treasure will soon rise to the occasion(8 May)

MARK YOUR CARD by MURRAY BELL

Things didn't go according to the script for Perfect Treasure at Happy Valley on Sunday but the smart New Zealand-bred galloper won't be long in making amends for trainer Francis Lui Kin-wai and jockey Douglas Whyte.

The three-year-old was having only his third start, and his first after a promising third to Kimberley Mines over 1,000 metres at the city venue on April 4 when he showed excellent speed to overcome barrier 11 and race outside the leader.

On this occasion, Perfect Treasure had a better barrier but a lot less luck, with Gerald Mosse on Happy Sunday keeping the gate firmly closed when Whyte wanted to lever his way out of a pocket behind the leader approaching the 200m.

Perfect Treasure ended up on the heels of leader Top Stitch, whose final 200m is always the worst part of his race, and Whyte then had no option but to take hold and drag his mount to the outside. While all that was happening, and he attempted to rebalance Perfect Treasure, the race slipped from his grasp as Happy Sunday gained a two-length advantage, with Whyte ultimately cutting the deficit back to three-quarters of a length.

Perfect Treasure is by Postponed, a stallion not well known to Hong Kong punters but one we'll probably be hearing much more about.

Postponed, who stands at Stoney Bridge at Karaka, just outside Auckland, was an American racer whose best win was the Grade Two Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park.

He's by Summer Squall, the second top three-year-old in America in 1990, with a victory in the Preakness Stakes and a second in the Kentucky Derby. Postponed's dam Bridal Tea is well bred too, being by Mr Prospector's sprinting sire son Gulch from a Grade Two-winning Northern Dancer half-sister to champion US sire Storm Cat. This is also the family of champion miler turned successful sire Royal Academy,

Giga Spirits may have looked to have every chance in the sprint won by Classa For Ever but lost the race though circumstances beyond his or Brett Prebble's control.

Prebble positioned Giga Spirits exactly where he should have been, following the David Hall-trained Thunder Flash, which should have given him the perfect drag into the race.

Unfortunately, the pacy Thunder Flash was nowhere near his best and was beaten for speed by Classa For Ever as the Peter Ho Leung-trained galloper raced across the face of the field from his wide barrier.

This meant that Giga Spirits was pushed one position (or 1-1/2 lengths) further back than Prebble had planned, and with the final margin being a head, this incident was the difference between victory and defeat.