3 minute read
Pearl Green continued his dominance of Macau’s feature races with another sterling win in Sunday’s SJM Charity Trophy over 1500 metres on the turf at Taipa.
Ridden by Panamanian jockey Oscar Chavez, Pearl Green enjoyed the run of the race in fourth spot before darting through on the inside of Obrigado Mais at the 200m.
He powered home for a strong win over Luen On Dance Kid (Ruan Maia), with Royal Garden (Tshwaro Appie) running on well from the back for third.
Prepared by three times champion trainer KH Leong, Pearl Green was having his first run since tackling the Hong Kong–Macau Trophy over 1400m at Sha Tin on May 11 where he ran a creditable fourth behind John Moore’s Good Standing.
Prior to that the five year old destroyed his rivals with an easy win in the G2 Directors Cup at Taipa over 1500 metres.
Both the first and second horse have been bargain buys for their respective owners after disappointing as two years olds in Australia.Pearl Green was originally a $A460,000 purchase at the 2015 Gold Coast Magic Millions Sales for Gai Waterhouse.
After two mediocre barrier trials at Randwick he was gelded and put on the market when he was snapped up by KH Leong for only $A55,000 for owner Chan Ming Wing.
After Sundays win Pearl Green has 10 wins and eight placings with only two unplaced runs in Macau and close to $HK4.25 million.
Luen On Dance Kid was originally purchased by China Horse Club at the 2016 Karaka Yearling Sales in New Zealand.
He trialled on four occasions in Australia under the Aquis Farm banner for a win in a 2YO trial at Newcastle.
The gelding was then put through a Melbourne tried horse sale in 2017 where he was picked up by Geoff Allendorf for his long serving owner Thomas Lau for the modest sum of $A14,000.
Luen On Dance Kid who is still only a four year old with stats of 6 – 3 – 3 and four unplaced runs for $HK1.5 million prize money.
Oscar Chavez and Wayne Smith shared riding honors on Sundays 11-race card with each landing a treble.
Smith won the other main feature race the Listed Lisboa Challenge for the two and three year olds over 1200m on Tagmaster for trainer Victor Chan.
Wayne Smith rode four winners over the weekend as he won the sole race held on Friday night on Victory Achiever for Stanley Chin.
Unfortunately just prior to race 2 the lighting system around the track malfunctioned leaving half the course in darkness.
With no other option the MJC had to cancel the remaining five races and transfer them to Sunday’s program.
On Sunday Smith was successful on Stadium in the Class 2 over 1050m (sand) for the combined yard of Tommy Tse and Louis Ho and booted Simply Impeccable home for the same training partnership in the Class 2 & 3 over 1350m.
Tse and Ho picked up a third winner on Sunday with Collateral Mission who scored under seven pound apprentice Eric Cheung in the Class 2 & 3 (1st division) over 1350m.
Chavez was in superb form with wins on the Geoff Allendorf prepared Me Whee in the Class 3 & 4 over 1050m and the Victor Chan trained Bring Me Glory in the Macau Golden Group Charity Trophy over 1800m.
