There are only nine meetings remaining in the Hong Kong season, and all eyes are fixed on what is proving to be one of the closest title fights in the history of racing in the city.

Victorious at the past seven meetings during a stretch that includes four doubles, Caspar Fownes holds the ascendancy on 62 wins, with Mark Newnham (58 victories) and Danny Shum (57) his biggest dangers.

Right in the hunt until recently, Francis Lui (51wins) and David Hayes (50) require something special to catapult themselves back into contention.

Each trainer will have meticulously plotted the final five weeks of the campaign, carefully placing their runners in the hope of extracting the most wins possible out of the gallopers they have at their disposal.

Shum is one trainer who looks to have plenty of bullets left to fire, with his stable performing well in recent weeks despite perhaps not producing quite the volume of winners the experienced handler may have liked.

Since jumping to the top of the table with a treble at Happy Valley on 13 May, Shum has managed only three victories.

He has endured a string of placings in that time, however, including eight from the past four meetings, and he will be hopeful a number of those gallopers can find the little bit extra required to salute before the season wraps up on 15 July.

Among those is King Profit, who prevailed over 1000m at Happy Valley in April before returning from a freshen-up with a second over 1200m at the city circuit on 3 June.

With three seconds and a win from his past four starts, King Profit is one of the form gallopers in Shum’s stable, and the Class 3 1000m contest at the Valley on 24 June is no doubt under consideration for the five-year-old.

Exceed The Limit enjoyed his switch to the extended Valley mile on 3 June and could be aimed at a 1650m race on 24 June, with Shum boasting the luxury of racing in Class 3 or Class 4, thanks to the three-year-old’s rating of 60.

Then there is Double Alpha, a half-length second down the Sha Tin straight on debut on 31 May. He could next be seen at the Sha Tin meeting on 21 June, where there are both 1000m and 1200m Class 4 races on offer for the son of Darci Brahma.

Shum also has a handful of last-start winners who look capable of further contributing to the cause in the coming weeks, none more so than Blazing Wind in this weekend’s Class 3 Snipe Handicap (1200m) on the dirt after his scintillating five-and-three-quarter-length success when last in action on 6 May.

Packing King also won cosily last time out, saluting by a length and a half at Sha Tin on 24 May, and the Class 3 1200m race on 21 June could be right in his wheelhouse, while Romantic Gladiator could chase back-to-back successes in the Class 3 1650m contest at the Valley on 24 June.

Finally, Shum is likely considering unveiling three-year-old Prime Winister before term’s end, with the unraced gelding showing enough in three Conghua trials to suggest he’s not too far off being ready to go to the races.

Photo: HKJC