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Four times Macau champion jockey Luis Corrales dominated weekend racing at Taipa, winning five races and kicking home three second placings from his eight mounts over the two days.
Corrales is in second spot on the rider standings this season. He has been chasing runaway leader Ruan Maia for most of the racing year but will still have to be content with second spot with Maia still 17 wins clear.
It was vintage Corrales as he kicked off his winning run on Taolu Expert in Saturday's Class 5 & 6 over 1500 metres.
In a last to first swoop the son of 2012 Golden Slipper winner Pierro raced away to beat Lucky Hugo (Kakeru Mizuno) with Prosperity Star (Kevin Leung) in third.
An incident on the race favorite Loxwood who finished second in the Class 2 over 1050 metres (sand), resulted in Corrales being stood down for the remainder of Saturday afternoon.
Loxwood struck him in the face in the early part of the race and went down by three quarters of a length to Stadium. Corrales complained of dizziness after the race and was stood down for the remainder of the day.
On Sunday Corrales struck early with a perfect all the way winning ride on Best Jade Wan Zai for trainer Alan Tam in the Class 5 & 6 over 1500 metres.
Next came a last to first ride on the seven year old Tuhao Power prepared by Sio Cheong in the Class 4 over 1200 metres, to easily beat Yings Fans (Oscar Chavez), with Éclair Mirage (J B Hamel) in third.
Corrales then picked up the days feature The Association Of Macau Racing Journalist Cup over 1200 metres (turf) on the Danny Wong trained Thar.
Corrales produced a brilliant ride from gate nine to box seat the horse in third spot the rails after 250 metres. After enjoying the run of the race Thar was momentarily held up in the early part of the straight before bursting through an opening to score a good win.
Royal Garden from the Stanley Chin yard was the last of Corrales winners when he swooped late to win the Class 1 & 2 over 1500 metres.
It was win number five for the six year old son of Remind (USA) who defeated Big Alloy (Kakeru Mizuno), with The Alfonso turning in a great run from a Macau Gold Cup point of view under Peter Ho for a fast finishing third.
The hard luck story of the race was the even money favorite Pearl Green who simply ran into a brick wall in the straight with no clear running, and wound up being untested under Oscar Chavez going to the line in fifth spot beaten four and a quarter lengths.
Royal Gardens continues the super season being enjoyed by Stanley Chin who led in four winners over the weekend to stretch his lead to an 11 win margin (50 to 39) over Sio Cheong in the Trainer's Premiership with four race days remaining for the season.
French rider Jean-Baptiste Hamel commonly referred to as "JB" kicked home a double on Saturday afternoon to give him five winners since he arrived in Macau at the end of May.
Tavezbac who was absolutely friendless in betting at odds of $534.50 for the win was given a brilliant front running ride over the 1510 metres (sand) in the Class 3 & 4 Handicap.
Prepared by Stanley Chin, Tavezbac won a 1400 metre maiden in good fashion at Ruakaka and has been in Macau since last December; however it was mid July this season that Stanley Chin first got the son of Tavistock to the races.
The bay gelding had been no end of problems refusing to load into the gates in jump-outs and trials previously until the five year old came around with Saturday's race his third in the enclave.
Hamel looked reluctant to lead on Tavezbac and when left in front walked the field for the most part of the race, before slipping away at the top of the straight to score a strong win over Grateful Favors (Ruan Maia, with God Get People (Fausto Henrique) in third.
Hamel's double came with the Victor Chan trained Knows It All in the Class 4 & 5 over 1050 metres. A first starter Knows It All was also friendless in the betting going out at $290.00 for the win.
Knows It All looks a nice type, a big strong son of Bachelor Duke who was foaled in New Zealand and ended up being shipped to Australia under the Aquis Farm banner.
The gelding ran third in a trial at Newcastle over 800m for Brett Cavanough, than was sent to Angela Plumb at the Gold Coast where he easily won a trial there over 900 metres.
Hamel is a well balanced strong rider that has over 560 career winners, and as well as his native France has ridden in Spain, Qatar, the UK, Italy and Germany.
