I would agree quite strongly that Hong Kong offers the best racing product today. However, be advised it's a different game than in the U.S., where the horse's performances are monitored much more closely by the stewards (especially favorites who run poorly), and no race day drugs are allowed.
Post position, trip, jockey changes and track bias need to be looked at more carefully, and I would also suggest (like Nitro) looking at the tote for clues as to which horse is live. You'll be amazed at the late money plunges, sometimes cutting the horse's odds in half or more (brown lamp turns on!), and unlike the U.S. those late moves don't pan out as often. Horses and gimmick prices dropping 20 to 49% are green in color.
Happy Valley has an uneven oval shape (sort of like Mountaineer Park), with tighter turns, and I think the handle at Sha Tin is a bit more as well. I read somewhere that 1 out of every 6 Hong Kong residents is a horseplayer, and it shows in the pools. They tend to bet more in one race than the whole cards at the major U.S. tracks.
Hong Kong also presents a "closed system" of sorts, where trainers, jockeys, owners and even the horses are all approved to run there, and there is very little turnover or shippers compared to most U.S. tracks. This allows a rating or handicap value to be established for each horse, and weights are assigned off those in each class. As if that isn't enough, the majority of the horses are also geldings, which tend to be more reliable/consistent. So the bottom line is there are plenty of tough puzzles to solve, though admittedly the chalk often gets there....
Good luck!
