3 minute read
Allen Tam’s Irish import Fasuba has posted his 11th victory in Macau with another gutsy front running performance, in winning Friday nights Class 1 & 2 (1st Division), over 1510 metres on the all-weather surface under French rider J B Hamel.
Fasuba whilst not big in stature, has a giant-sized heart, and simply refused to surrender to Sheng Li Superstar (Luis Corrales), the biggest horse in the race, with the rising eight-year-old scoring by a head on the line, with almost four lengths back the race favorite Number Zero (Fausto Henrique) in third.
It was obvious a long way from home that the race was going to be a two-horse affair with Fasuba setting a swift tempo up front, with Sheng Li Superstar parked right on his tail. The duo had the rest of the field really stretched coming to the corner, before settling down for a David and Goliath like battle down the length of the straight.
Fasuba is named after the brilliant Nigerian sprinter Olusoji Fasuba, who is recognized as the fastest African runner of all time.
Living up to his name Fasuba is the current 1050 metre track record holder in 1.00.60, a mark he set in his fourth year when he was labeled as Macau's best sprinter. While seven of the bay geldings' wins have been at the 1050 metre journey, Tam pulled off a masterstroke in the 2019 Group 2 Autumn Trophy (sand), when he ran close to a track record time of 1.37.9 for the 1600 metres in an all the way victory at odds of 42/1.
Friday night's win was his first at 1510 metres, with two other victories at 1350 metres, all on the sand, with his earnings now over the $3.2 million HKD mark.
Qian Gua is a Mandarin term that translates to the English phrase "to worry about," and the New Zealand import certainly gave his rivals plenty to worry about, with a massive 11 ¼ lengths win in Friday night's 2nd Division of the Class 1 & 2 over 1510 metres.
Prepared by K H Leong and ridden by Shogo Nakano, Qian Gua after racing outside the well fancied Crown Of Gold to the home turn, was let loose by Nakano in the home straight to simply destroy his opponents, it what was the biggest win seen on the all weather in a long while.
Qian Gua won two races from 16 starts in New Zealand, with five placed efforts and $25,475 NZD in prize money. Since arriving in Macau, he has now won five races and $1,096,040 HKD in stakes; that's the equivalent of $201,000 NZD and there is more to come.
The son of Cape Blanco (Ire) is an all-round racehorse and has now won on good and heavy tracks on the turf, and has now proved his worth on the sand with his run time on Friday night of 1.33.9 just .02 slower then Fasuba in the stronger division.
Nakano made it a double for the night when scored a surprise win on the Rambo Tse prepared Shooting To Pins, in the last the Class 4 & 5 over 1050 metres.
In a remarkable training feat by Tse, Shooting To Pins was backing up from a struggling ninth beaten nine lengths over 1800 metres on the turf just six days prior. In an amazing performance the son of Pins (NZ) missed the start hopelessly and then came from a mile off to score a runaway win.
