3 minute read
There is no stopping the Tony Fung yard at the moment with the former Champion trainer saddling up five winners over the weekend to take him to a clear lead on 18 wins in the trainer’s standings.
Fung, who enjoyed his best day ever as a trainer when he led in five winners on the all weather program on the 1st of November, has been running hot of late and has now prepared 11 winners for the month of November.
Fung's weekend started on Friday night with the highly promising Your Are The Best who made light of his wide draw and a hard run in transit to race away with Class 2 &3 over 1050 metres.
Your Are The Best Was A$100,000 purchase at the 2015 Inglis Classic Yearling Sales and was originally raced in Victoria by Mr. Tang King Min and prepared by Archie Alexander. From four starts in Victoria as Wishful Realizer the best the gelding could manage was a third at Racing.Com Park (Pakenham).
Exported to Macau by Mr. Tang and arriving in the enclave in July, the son of I Am Invincible (Aus) stepped out in a maiden on the turf on October 26 and easily accounted for his opposition with a soft win. Friday night's win in good run time of 1.02.4 highlights his versatility by being able to run on both the turf and the sand, and the now matured four year old looks destined for brighter things.
On Sunday's all weather card Tony Fung was quick off the mark with race favorite Hostwin Prosperits under Frenchman J B Hamel bolting away with the first of the day the Class 6 over 1050 metres. Next came Darling Ten also under J B Hamel to win the next event the Class 4 & 5 over 1050 metres.
The very consistent Mujaan under Luis Corrales gave Fung three for the night when he did a fine job from gate 11 to go forward and race handy in the run, before kicking away at the two hundred and have enough in store to stave off the late challenge by Simply Impeccable (Fausto Henrique), to win the Class 2 over 1510 metres.
Evergreen Pegasus rounded out Fung's day with a solid win in the Class 4 & 5 over 1510 metres to give him four for the afternoon and J B Hamel three for the day.
Fung who won his first Macau trainers Championship in the 2017 – 2018 season has a clear lead on 18 wins for the new season, nine ahead of three trainers all on nine victories, including Stanley Chin, Sio Cheong and Geoff Allendorf.
With a win rate of 27% and a place rate of 53%, Fung who does not have as big a stable as some of his rivals, is showing no signs of stopping and has some nice newcomers yet to step out in his barn.
Comeback jockey Roger Yu is enjoying a great start to the season and kicked home another four winners over the weekends racing, including another treble on Friday night that followed hot on the heels of a three timer the week before.
Yu who only returned to race riding on September 13 after almost a year on the sidelines with a fractured vertebrae, has been in dashing form of late.
As well asYou Are The Best on Friday night for Tony Fung, Yu rode a double for Alan Tam with Electroplate Alloy Class 4 and The Happy Prince Class 2 & 3. On Sunday he was successful on the Sio Cheong prepared River Treasure in the Class 3 & 4 over 1510 metres.
French rider Jean –Baptiste (J B) Hamel enjoyed his best day at the Taipa track with a treble on Sunday's card to give him four winners for the weekend.
As well as Hamel's three winners for Tony Fung on Sunday, Hamel was successful on Friday night on the Geoff Allendorf trained Draft Camp who looked super in winning the Class 4 over 1350 metres.
Draft Camp is a good looking son of Dream Ahead (USA) that performed well in winning two barrier trials at Cranbourne in Victoria prior to being sold onto Macau.
Two runs on the turf over 1200 metres seen him a close runner up to his stablemate another nice one in Colonel Mordaunt, with Friday nights win showing his versatility with the USA influence in his breeding making him adept on both the Turf or the sand.
