MACAU: Leading Riders Going Head To Head

Monday, 21 May 2012: Leading jockeys Manoel Nunes and Fausto Durso continued their intriguing battle for premiership honors when each rode a double over the weekend meetings at Taipa.

Manoel Nunes Photo by Racing and Sports

Nunes scored on the very smart Sino Estrela for the combined stable of Brian Kan and Tommy Tse on Friday night in the Class 3 over 1350 metres, and then romped home in the first on Sunday's program on Fortune Horse for trainer Geoff Allendorf in a Class 5 & 6 over 1200 metres on the turf.

Just a pony in stature at 860 pounds and scraping to make 15 hands, Fortune Horse showed his liking for the heavy ground and powered away to win easily.

Durso's two winners on Sunday were the K C Chong trained Hung Kong Star who had to survive a vet inspection behind the gates prior to the race before winning the Class 3 & 4 over 1100 metres easily.

From the wide gate Durso sent the son of Reenact forward to be off the speed a bit deep and then had no hesitation spearing the gelding to the extreme outside in the straight in search of better ground.

Whilst Nunes won the first of the day on the smallest racehorse in Taipa, Durso won race six on what is the biggest with the giant galloper My Pony bolting away with the Class 1 over 1200 metres.

My Pony maintained his wonderful record of never being out a top three spot and made it win number four from seven stars in Macau.

The big son of O'Reilly stands well over 16 hands and generally goes to scale at over 1350 pounds,

Sunday however was the trimmest we have ever seen him presented at 1310 pounds indicating that trainer Tony Fung had been able to put plenty of work into the problem plagued galloper.

“He is so big and heavy that I have to bring him along patiently to take care of his tendons and also he has some slight wind problems.” Tony Fung said.

Nunes and Durso are locked on 51 wins for the season with Stanley Chin in third spot on 42

• FRENCH apprentice Charles Perkins bounced back to the winners circle after a nasty fall two weeks ago to win the Class 4 & 5 over 1800 metres on Power More for his master K H Leong on Sunday.

Perkins was sidelined with muscular and ligament damage to his neck and back following a fall from Sun Smile on the all weather on May 4th.

Up and coming apprentice Frankie Choi made it career win number four when Show My Heart shot away from his rivals to win the Class 5 & 6 over 1200 metres also on the turf Sunday.

In the race for apprentice honors Charles Perkins who only commenced riding on January 16 is at the top of the ladder on 16 wins from Martin Cangas on 15, with twice champion apprentice Cash Wong now back from suspension on 14 winners.