Another win for Irish flyer Fasuba
Allen Tam’s Irish import Fasuba (Power) posted his 11th victory in Macau with another gutsy front-running performance in Friday night’s Class 1 & 2 (1st Division) (1510m) on the all-weather surface under French rider J B Hamel.
Fasuba, while not big in stature, has a giant-sized heart, and refused to surrender to Sheng Li Superstar (Harbour Watch), the biggest horse in the race, with the rising eight-year-old scoring by a head on the line, with almost four lengths back the race favorite Number Zero (Showcasing) in third.
It was obvious a long way from home that the race was going to be a two-horse affair with Fasuba setting a swift tempo up front and Sheng Li Superstar parked right on his tail. The duo had the rest of the field really stretched coming to the corner, before settling down for a David and Goliath-like battle down the length of the straight.
Fasuba is named after the brilliant Nigerian sprinter Olusoji Fasuba, who is recognized as the fastest African runner of all time.
Living up to his name, Fasuba is the current 1050-metre track record holder with a time of 1.00.60, a mark he set in his fourth year when he was labeled as Macau’s best sprinter. While seven of the gelding’s wins have been at the 1050-metre journey, Tam pulled off a masterstroke in the 2019 Group 2 Autumn Trophy (1600m) (sand) when he ran close to a track-record time of 1.37.9 for the 1600 metres in an all-the-way victory at odds of 42-1.
Friday night’s win was his first at 1510 metres, with two other victories at 1350 metres, all on the sand, with his earnings now over the HK$3.2 million mark.
No worries for Qian Gua
Qian Gua (Cape Blanco) is a Mandarin term that translates to the English phrase ‘to worry about’, and the New Zealand import certainly gave his rivals plenty to worry about, with a massive 11-length win in Friday night’s 2nd Division of the Class 1 & 2 over 1510 metres.
Prepared by K H Leong and ridden by Shogo Nakano, Qian Gua, after racing outside the well-fancied Crown Of Gold (Duporth) to the home turn, was let loose by Nakano in the home straight to destroy his opponents, in what was the biggest win seen on the all-weather in a long while.
Qian Gua won two races from 16 starts in New Zealand, with five placed efforts and NZ$25,475 in prize money. Since arriving in Macau, he has now won five races and HK$1,096,040 in stakes, the equivalent of NZ$201,000, and there is more to come.
He is an all-round racehorse and has now won on good and heavy tracks on the turf, and has now proved his worth on the sand with his run time on Friday night of 1.33.9 just .02 slower then Fasuba in the stronger division.
Nakano made it a double for the night when he scored a surprise win on the Rambo Tse-prepared Shooting To Pins (Pins) in the Class 4 & 5 over 1050 metres.
In a remarkable training feat by Tse, Shooting to Pins was backing up from a struggling ninth-placed effort, beaten nine lengths over 1800 metres on the turf just six days prior. In an amazing performance, Shooting To Pins missed the start hopelessly and then came from a mile off to score a runaway win.
Lady of Fortune for Choi
Ricky Choi’s Fortune Lady (Sepoy) made it four wins from her last seven starts with a last-stride win over The Macallan (Rock ‘N’ Pop) in Saturday’s Class 4 over 1800 metres on the turf.
Ridden by Roger Yu, Fortune Lady is one of very few mares racing in Macau, and in Saturday’s race going to scale at just 979 pounds, was one of the smallest horses in the field. However, what the mare lacks in stature she makes up for in heart. After beginning only fairly from her outside gate of ten, she did a bit of work in the run to eventually stride forward to sit outside the pacemaker The Macallan in the back straight.
Once in the straight, the mare laid it down to the much bigger horse The Macallan, and Yu also shut the door on the stablemate Chinese Hero (Smart Missile), locking him away behind The Macallan until the race was all over. In a deceiving finish, Fortune Lady got the stride in right on the line to win by a nose.
Choi has done a fine job with the mare, taking her from a mark of 25 to what will be a rating of 56 after Saturday.
With only a small team of 18 horses in his yard, Choi has had 13 winners from his 122 runners this season, with 30 placings to his credit giving him a place strike-rate of 35 per cent.
Consistent Casino scores deserved success
Iron horse Casino Mok (Casino Prince) scored a much-deserved win when he got up in the last bound to win Saturday’s Class 3 over 1200 metres for trainer Sio Cheung.
Ridden by Eric Cheung, Casino Mok settled in third spot in a race run at a suicide pace set up by Diamond Moonlight (The Wow Signal), who had the field stretched out over 15 lengths down the side of track.
Once in the straight, Cheung balanced up the son of Casino Prince (Flying Spur) and he hit the line hard to beat the unlucky Circuit Master (Bernardini) by a head, with the tiring Diamond Moonlight a half-length away in third.
Casino Mok, who was saddling up his for 23rd run of the season, has been a model of consistency of late, only missing a prize-money cheque in two of his last 11 starts. Whilst he has only won two races for the season, he has seldom been out of a top-three spot.
The now seven-year-old is a former Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained galloper who raced in Australia as Lord Macau. The gelding was originally an AU$170,000 purchase at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
A much-travelled galloper, he raced at Randwick, Flemington and Morphettville, scoring three wins, one at Hawkesbury and two at Warwick Farm, before being sold onto Macau.
The gelding has been a great money spinner in the enclave for new owner Mr. Mok Shing Fung, who purchased him for AU$55,000 at the 2018 February Inglis Digital Online Sale.
His Macau record now reads six wins and 26 placed efforts from his 72 starts in the enclave and close to HK$2.2 Million in prize-money.
The hard luck story of the race was the Nick Moore-trained Circuit Master, who formally raced in Australia as Esperance when prepared by James Cummings. The six-year-old was checked at the 800-corner, losing a length and a half and was only defeated by a head on the line.