Bargain hunter Mok cleans up with Simon Fubuki
Popular owner Mok Shing Fung has a real bargain buy on his hands in his Australian import Simon Fubuki (Medaglia d’Oro), who simply destroyed a good quality Class 2 field on the all-weather surface with a seven-length victory on Saturday.
Prepared by Rambo Tse and ridden by Peter Lao, Simon Fubuki traveled handy in the run off the pacemakers Casino Mok (Casino Prince) and King Of Glamour (Eurozone), before bursting away at the top of the straight for a brilliant win over the outsider Collateral Mission (Reckless Abandon), with Tremendous Wins (Turffontein) in third.
Named after the anime character Simon Fubuki from the Japanese-Chinese comedy TV series To Be a Heroine, Simon Fubuki’s talents are not just restricted to the sand surface. The gelding was an easy winner over 1500 metres on the turf two runs back, beating Beauty Wink (Medaglia d’Oro) and last year’s Derby Trial (Listed, 1500m) winner Winnie Star (Medaglia d’Oro). That said, he appears to be something special on the sand evidenced by Saturday’s huge win.
The four-year-old gelding has a great sand pedigree being by Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado) from Ringhals (Street Cry). He was originally an A$280,000 purchase for Star Thoroughbreds and Waller Racing at the 2018 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale. Racing in Australia as Olympic, the gelding took six races to win a maiden over 1950 metres at Yarra Valley on a heavy track.
Five more runs in Victoria saw the gelding fail to place, and he was then entered in last year’s Inglis May Online Sale, where he was snapped up by Mok Shing Fung for the modest sum of A$30,000. In his five runs in Macau, Simon Fubuki has now won two and placed second behind the smart Top Mountainlegend (Manhattan Rain). After Saturday’s victory the four-year-old is already nudging the HK$500,000 (approx. A$84,500) mark in prize-money, and will be a major player in the four-year-old Classics on the turf and a worthy Derby (Listed, 1800m) contender come July 10.
Inglis Online sales have been a happy hunting ground for Mok Shing Fung with Rock To Road (Stryker) another bargain buy at just A$25,000. Rock To Road has now won four races in Macau and placed twice from ten starts, earning HK$1 million (approx. A$169,000) in prize-money. Another has been Casino Mok (formerly named Lord Macau), an online buy at A$55,000 who has won five races and placed 17 times for over HK$1.6 million (approx. A$270,000) in stakes.
Rambo Tse and Peter Lao combined again in the next race the Class 4 & 5 over 1510 metres with the New Zealand import Captain Brentford (He’s Remarkable), who showed plenty of courage after being headed to beat race favorite River Unicorn (Savabeel) (Eric Cheung) by a neck, with Off The Bench (Pentire) (Tshwaro Appie) in third.
It was a double for both Tse and Lao on the day, and gave Tse nine winners for the season, with five second placings from only 33 runners to date. With only 11 horses in his stable, Tse has the best strike rate of any trainer with his 27 per cent win rate and 42 per cent place strike.
Eric Cheung kicked home a double for the afternoon to give him 21 wins for the season, and top billing on the jockeys’ premiership table.
Cheung was successful on the Joe Lau-prepared Star Of Phoenix (Commands), who sprouted wings over the final stages of the Class 3 & 4 over 1800 metres to snatch victory right on the line from Money Link (Red Jazz) (Tshwaro Appie), with Colonel Mordaunt (Zoffany) (Stephane Ladjadj) in third.
In a deceiving finish that took the judge an eternity to separate them, Star Of Phoenix just managed to get the stride in and his head down right where it mattered. There is an old saying in racing that they pay out on a quarter of an inch, and that’s about all it was with the son of Commands (Danehill) getting there officially by the shortest possible margin – a nose.
Roaring Fans (Nicconi) from the Stanley Chin yard gave Cheung his double for the day when he led throughout to beat Ventures Elite (Breinell Yamzon) in the Class 3 & 4 over 1200 metres.
Eight-year-old Californiatreasure (Onemorenomore) showed there is still life in the old boy yet when he finished too strongly under Breinell Yamzon to down his much younger rival, the three-year-old River Applause (Hidden Dragon) (Eric Cheung), with Luen On Success (Dane Shadow) (Frankie Choi) in third in the Class 6 over 1200 metres.
It was win number ten in the enclave for Californiatreasure, who has another 18 placings from his 87 starts. The gelding has been a great money-spinner for connections, picking up close to HK$3 million (approx. A$507,500) in prize-money.
The win gave hard-working Filipino jockey Breinell Yamzon his fourth winner for the season.