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A quick thinking move by Manoel Nunes sealed victory for the favorite Pearl Green in Saturday’s Macau Derby at Taipa.

In a brilliant piece of early riding Nunes had Pearl Green in the perfect spot fourth the rails from gate seven.

However once heads were turned into the backstraight the well thought out plans began to unravel. In one of the roughest Derbys seen at Taipa Nunes was shuffled back to tenth spot at the 900m losing at least six lengths.

Pearl Green recovered and started to come back into the race but the leaders were packing up and started to tire approaching the corner.

It was here that Nunes read the play perfectly. In a lighting move he slipped around the traffic wide out to surge to the front at and pinch a winning break.

Royal Garden (Ryan Curatolo) burst out of the pack after Pearl Green and did a mighty job to power home wide out on the outside rail with Curatolo thinking he had won, only to find he had gone down by a neck.

Rose Gold Alloy (Matthew Chadwick) ran on strongly for third two lengths away after being held up coming to the home turn.

“What a great effort it was by the horse,” Nunes said after the win.

“I was in a lovely spot early and the horse I was following Happiness Rose I expected to take me at least until the 700m but it was gone at the 1000m mark.

“From then on there was interference and I just got stuck behind horses going nowhere.

“Once I was able to let him stride back into the race I then had to make a quick decision when the leaders started to stop before the turn.

“I know this track and if I don’t take off there we get more trouble and we’ll lose the race.”

Nunes, a former six times champion Macau jockey, has now won the Macau Derby four times since 2005.

Pearl Green has been a real bargain buy for owner Chan Ming Wing who bought the horse on the advice of trainer KH Leong.

The four year old son of Fastnet Rock was a $A460,000 purchase at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sales and was subsequently named Meadow Lane.

Placed in the care of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott he failed dismally in two barrier trials and was then gelded and sold to Macau for the modest sum of $A55,000.

Pearl Green has been the dominant four year all season and made a clean sweep of the G3 Derby Prelude, G1 Macau Guineas and now the G1 David Group Macau Derby.

With Saturdays winning prize money of $HK1.3 million plus bonuses the gelding has now picked up $HK3.1 million.

CURATOLO SUSPENDED FOR ONE MONTH

In a sensational aftermath to the Macau Derby Ryan Curatolo copped a month’s suspension on a charge of failing to ride runer-up Royal Garden to the satisfaction of the stewards.

The MJC stewards panel chaired by Australian Peter Dombkins ruled against Curatolo, charging him with making insufficient effort over the final 200m to keep his mount on a straight course and by finishing very wide on the track, with his mount being beaten a neck, costing it a win.

The Royal Garden camp were left shattered knowing that they should have been celebrating a $2.6 million Group 1 victory had Royal Garden stayed on a reasonably straight course.

Royal Garden shifted out at least 10 horses from the 200m to finish on the outside rail.

BRING ME SPEED TOP 3YO

Bring Me Speed capped off a wonderful season with a win in the G1 David Group Rising Star Cup over 1350 metres on the sand on Saturday, continuing his dominance of the juvenile races.

Ridden by regular rider Wayne Smith, Bring Me Speed was given a gem of a ride parking just off the speed with cover from his barrier eight.

The 3YO was jogging on their backs coming to the corner, and once in the straight Smith cut loose to burst to the front and grab a winning break.

Master Starkiller (Peter Ho) emerged out of the pack to chase him and did a fine job to run him a neck, with Luen On Dance Kid (Manoel Nunes) close up in third.

Prepared by Victor Chan, Bring Me Speed has now won seven races, six of those this season.

The flashy Sebring chestnut with a taffy mane and tail won both legs of the Listed Lisboa Series over 1200m and 1500m in March and has all the attributes of a top Derby contender for next season.

One of the best wins of the day was another Victor Chan runner in Lucky Winston who came from the tail of the field in a brilliant ride by Martin Wepner to score a runaway win in the Davis Entertainment Class 2 over 1500 metres.

Lucky Winston and Martin Wepner were a formidable combination last season winning four races culminating in the G2 Directors Cup in June.

The seven year old’s form then tapered off a little but Chan has him right back to his best now and thrives on the cold riding style of Wepner.

With only a couple runners in front of him Wepner saved plenty of ground via the rails and only stepped around one runner in the straight.