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Macau champion River Bobo continued his dominance of feature races on the all weather surface at Taipa with a strong win in the G1 Star Of The Sand Stakes on August 13.

In a superb display of speed and stamina over the 1500m course River Bobo set a strong tempo away from the gates to lead throughout winning in a new race record time of 1.31.8.

Last year’s winner Pak Lok Angel gave plenty under jockey Wayne Smith in the run but was no match for the winner, with Sandtop (Ryan Curatolo) a stablemate to River Bobo running on strongly from the tail of the field for third.

Prepared by leading trainer Sio Cheong, River Bobo took his record to nine wins from his 13 starts on the sand, only being out of a top three spot on two occasions.

The gelding has amassed just over $2.5 million HKD in prize money for Macau’s biggest owner Mr. King Ho.

By Elusive City out of the Jungle Pocket mare Swiftsure, River Bobo commenced his career with a win over 1350 metres on the all weather in May of last year on a rating of 45.

After Saturdays win the five year old will be over 120 points in the ratings underlining his splendid talent.

Champion jockey Luis Corrales has been River Bobo’s regular rider from day one and has been on the bay gelding in all his wins.

Corrales has made the Star of The Sand his own race with Saturday’s victory his fourth win in the classic.

The Panamanian rider first won the race as an apprentice back in 2000 with Beautiful Cut for trainer Wing Leung.

He then picked up his second win in the race in 2003 on Alan Tams’ tough grey galloper Change The Grange, and then punched Golden Gunner over the line for Tommy Tse in the 2011 running of the event.

Trainer Peter Leyshan looks to have a very handy one in his new Showcasing youngster Falcoshow who won the Class 4 & 5 in a hand canter on Saturday.

Ridden by Andrew Calder Falcoshow sped away from the gates to lead easily, and went right on with it over the concluding stages of the 1050 metre race recording a respectable 1.02.9 on the sand.

Falcoshow is a four year and whilst not a big horse is well put together and on his breeding should be adept on both the sand or turf surfaces.

Filipino jockey Johnny Cordero enjoyed his best day at the Taipa track with a winning double on Saturday’s card.

Cordero gave Cargo Money a great ride after the grey gelding once again blew the start to win the Class 6 over 1500 metres.

After being a lonely last early Cordero saved valuable ground against the rail in the run before charging home over the last two hundred to win well on the K H Leong trained galloper.

My Dream from the Sio Cheong stable was the second of Cordero’s winners when he went home too well for Gem Fighter in the Class 4 over 1600 metres.

The Stanley Chin trained Winner Fortune made it three wins on end with another gutsy effort to win the Class 4 over 1200 metres on the turf Sunday.

Ridden by Mauritian rider Akash Aucharuz Winner Fortune went home too well for Chinese Scholar (Wayne Smith) in the wet conditions to make it four wins from his last six starts.

In a carbon copy of his win two starts back against Turquoise Lucky, Winner Fortune looked to be struggling at the two hundred against Chinese Scholar but rallied again late to win drawing away on the line by one and a quarter lengths.

The win gave Akash Aucharuz a double for the day having won the previous race the Class 4 & 5 over 1800 metres on Laughing World.

Aucharuz made the most of a soft lead on the 10 year old New Zealand bred gelding before kicking away at the two hundred for a nice win.

Laughing World is prepared by K C Chong and has now won 11 races in Macau and picked up $2.2 million HKD in prize money for connections.

Not bad for a horse that looked to have a very limited future in New Zealand after picking up $3750 NZD for winning a maiden at Oamaru.