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Brazilian Fausto Henrique and Frenchman Jean- Baptiste Hamel have emerged as serious contenders for the title of Macau’s Champion jockey after both kicked home doubles on the weekend.
Both riders have been in superb form in recent weeks with Henrique in third spot in the rider's standings on 22 wins, and Hamel in fourth position on 21 victories. Roger Yu still leads the way on 24 winners after booting home one winner on the weekend, with former four time Champion Luis Corrales in second spot on 23 wins.
Henrique struck first on Friday night when he scored on the Stanley Chin Win Win Hooray by virtue of a lovely rails hugging ride in the Class 3 & 4 over 1050 metres.
On a night where some riders were content to skirt a bit deep away from the rails, Henrique summed the track up perfectly after the rain came with the rail riding slick all night.
Henrique then produced a gem of a ride on the Tony Fung prepared Mr Fortune in the last of the night the Class 4 & 5 over 1510 metres.
Mr Fortune the race favorite at $29.00 was drawn out in gate 11 and with just one hundred and ten metres to the first turn; Henrique did a brilliant job to position the favorite in fourth spot on the rail. From then on the son of Jet Spur (Aus) enjoyed the run of the race off the speed before darting between runners at the top of the straight and powering away for a strong win.
J B Hamel's joy came on Saturday's turf card when he got off to a flying start on the Nick Moore trained Hostwin Euphoria in the Class 4 & 5 over 1200 metres.
Hostwin Euphoria is a nice neat looking son of Street Boss (USA) that was a A$150,000 purchase at the 2018 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.
The three year old was well schooled having won a barrier trial at both Rosehill and Warwick Farm prior to being sent to Macau, and judging by Saturday's win is going to develop into a handy commodity that will get over more ground.
Nick Moore also provided Hamel with his second winner in Hostwin Shadow in the Class 2 & 3 over 1200 metres. The grey son of Longhorn (Aus) enjoyed a cozy run of the leader Thehorseiswithme before ripping away for an easy win. His runtime of 1.10.9 was only two ticks quicker then Hostwin Euphoria's early win in the lower grade, which bodes well for the three year old Hostwin Euphoria.
The Hostwin double continued the wonderful start for Nick Moore to his training career giving him five winners from only 23 runners to date; with Hostwin Euphoria and Hostwin Shadow his only runners on Saturday.
With five months of the season remaining the Jockeys Championship is shaping up to be an intriguing battle. Fausto Henrique is in his third season in Macau and now well established with owners and trainers. J B Hamel only arrived for the final three months of last season, but has quickly garnered support to put himself in the top bracket in the enclave.
Stanley Chin is eying the four year old classics as a prelude to the Derby for his highly talented galloper King Of Glamour who scored a nice win in the Class 1 & 2 over 1500 metres.
Stable apprentice Eric Cheung did a fine job on the four year old son of Eurozone (Aus) getting across from gate nine to find the rail in seventh spot after three hundred metres. The gelding enjoyed a nice run well of the pace before improving approaching the home turn. With a line of four battling it out at the two hundred, King Of Glamour swooped on them quickly and sprinted away with a winning break.
Luen On Poseidon who was runner up to Bring Me Speed in last year's Macau Guineas, was coming on strongly late under Dayversom Barros after having to squeeze though a tight gap on the rail, and ran King Of Glamour to a short head on the wire; with Trillion King a distant third.
King Of Glamour has put together a fine record with five wins and three seconds from his nine starts. Saturday's win came off an unlucky neck second to Oneofthegreats over 1500 metres on February 22.
Stanley Chin will target the Derby Trial on May 16, than the Macau Guineas on June 13 on his way to the Derby set down for July 19. Chin was a neck runner up to Pearl Green in the 2018 Derby with Royal Garden.
Cliffy Lai took the prize for the most daring ride of the day when he led most of the way on the New Zealand import Qian Gua to win the Class 2 over 1800 metres.
Lai who has only just returned to race after a four months break, drove the five year old out of the gates to lead the field out of the straight the first time setting up a good tempo. Once the back the five year old son of Cape Blanco (Ire) was momentarily headed by The Moon's Back before Lai again upped the ante to take charge again. Qian Gua was let loose by Lai from the six hundred mark and put a gap in the field to straighten up with a six lengths margin over the rest ; he gave nothing a chance from there on to win easily.
Prepared in Macau by K H Leong, Qian Gua was friendless in the betting going out at odds of $538.00 for the win. The victory was even more surprising give that Qian Gua had only had one run prior for 12/14 beaten 16 lengths over 1050 metres on the sand.
Japanese rider Massa Tanaka is off and running in Macau with a double over the weekend to add to his breakthrough win in the enclave a fortnight back.
Tanaka again teamed up with trainer Geoff Allendorf who provided him with his first winner Luen On Success, only on this occasion it was Luen On Prosperity in Friday night's Class 4 & 5 over 1200 metres on the turf.
Luen On Prosperity made it win number two from his five runs to date and continued the good run of success for the Geoff Allendorf stable, and gave him win number 22 for the season.
Tanaka then backed up again on Saturday to win the Class 5 & 6 over 1800 metres on the Alan Tam prepared So Yummy.
Tanaka is Macau's newest jockey having arrived in January and has ridden at 10 racedays to date and is now just starting to establish himself in the enclave.
Shogo Nakano is Macau's other Japanese rider that is into his second year with the club. The likeable rider booted home win number six for the season with a nice ride on Ventures Elite from the K H Leong yard, in the Class 6 over 1350 metres on Friday night.
Ventures Elite was rated perfectly on the lead by Nakano before racing well clear in the straight to defeat Numberone Mingxuan (Eric Cheung), with Filial Piety (Stephane Ladjadj) in third.
