TRAINER GETS CHARGE OUT OF HK

IF one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, former Hong Kong horses are gold for trainer Adam Campton.

The Gold Coast trainer has a knack of getting the best out of horses who have returned from the Asian racing centre and believes he has one with upside in the form of Charge On, who heads to the Sunshine Coast on Saturday in the Benchmark 80 Handicap (1200m).

With two wins in 18 starts in Hong

Kong under Melbourne Cup-winning trainer David Hall, Charge On has sprung back to life in Queensland.

“The owners were keen to sack it there and then David Hall rang me asking if I wanted it down here,” Campton said.

“He’s a bit of a surprise packet because it took so much work.

“He was doing everything wrong and we were thinking, ‘ what is going on here?’

“We gave him a trial at Beaudesert and he started to pick up his work, he galloped one morning and he went real good. ‘Hally’ said he was the right horse to have on the Gold Coast, he has definitely been that.

“He won one day at Sha Tin and it was enormous, he got back to last and kept coming down the outside, he was a mile off them.”

With five former Hong Kong gallopers in his stable and three more to come, Campton has a knack of getting the most out of them when they return to Australia.

He has former Group 1 Australian

Guineas runner-up Hawkshot (now Beauty Legacy) ready to start trials shortly.

“Every (ex-hong Kong horse) we have had race, we have had a winner with – that is something we want to keep up,” he said.

“(Charge On) probably has the most left in him out of the ones we have raced so far.

“It’s a matter of getting the right horses from there, they are a bit like those old footballers when they have a change of club.

“Every one I get back, I go through what they did in Hong Kong, and then try to do the opposite.

“That’s not because the trainers over there are doing the wrong thing, it’s more just trying to change it up for them.”

After nominating for the Class 3 Plate (1400m) and Benchmark 80 (1200m), Campton said he elected to go for the six-furlong option to best use his turn of foot.

Charge On is rated a $9.50 chance with TAB.