3 minute read

Crack Australian rider Noel Callow didn’t take long to get on the scoreboard in Macau with a winning double on Saturday’s mixed turf and sand program at Taipa.

Callow, riding in Macau until July 1, opened his account with a huge win on the KH Leong trained Algonquin Park at odds of 10/ in the Class 4 & 5 over 1200 metres.

With the heavy rain that fell through the week the track was the heaviest it’s been this season with race times up to 10 seconds outside of standard.

Algonquin Park was an unknown quantity on the testing conditions but proved to be a real mudlark.

After crossing quickly from his wide gate to sit outside the leader he raced away in the straight to win by nine lengths from Bellomaster (Frankie Choi), with race favorite Wonderful Power (Ruan Maia) in third.

Algonquin Park was formerly with Kris Lees at Newcastle where he performed well enough in six trials to suggest he had some ability.

The gelding was then sold to Macau owner Tam Vai Lam and after taking a while to acclimatize had produced two decent runs prior to Saturday’s win.

The race time was of considerable interest with the three year old running almost a second quicker than the Class 2 & 3 won by Mission Gdragon.

Kelowna Star having his first run for the Tony Fung yard was the second of Callow’s winners when he produced a powerful finish to charge down the outside to win the Class 1 & 2 over 1350 metres on the sand.

In a quality lineup as much as 20/1 was on offer for Kelowna Star early on but with late money the gelding firmed to jump at 11/1.

Kelowna Star was well back in the early part with the hot speed up front set up by his stablemate Evergreen Star.

Approaching the turn Callow got onto the back of the favorite Obrigado Mais who bought him into the race and then unleashed a powerful burst wide out to win running away.

Former four times champion Macau jockey Luis Corrales also kicked home a double on the night in the last two races on the all weather surface.

The highly promising Happiness Rose was the first of Corrales winners when he treated his rivals with contempt in the Class 4 Handicap over 1350 metres.

Only a small horse going to scale at 1000 pounds, Happiness Rose humped his big weight of 132 pounds with ease and raced away to win by four lengths at the line to make it three wins straight.

Happiness Rose is prepared by the combined stable of Victor Chan and Kenny Seo, and is the first progeny of the Australian Group winner Walking And Dancing to race in Macau.

Corrales rounded out his day with a heady ride on the Danny Wong trained Pacers Bahare who took out the last of the day the Class 4 over 1510 metres.

Pacers Bahare has not been the most bankable horse throughout his career but has plenty of ability on his day and Saturdays win was his sixth in Macau.

The seven year old was aided by a lovely ride by Corrales who hugged the rail throughout to save many lengths to win by two lengths from the fast finishing Off The Bench (Eric Cheung), with Garlic And Chili (Roger Yu) who covered plenty of extra ground in third.