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Pearl Green's win at Taipa was a far cry from the original aspirations that were held for the gelding’s future racing prospects.

As a yearling colt Pearl Green was knocked down to Tom Magnier for $460,000 Aud. at the 2015 Gold Coast Yearling Sales.

Magnier purchased the son of Fastnet Rock (Aud) no doubt as a future stallion prospect. He is from the Encosta De Lago (Aus) mare The Hamptons whose grand dam was the 1993 Blue Diamond winner and later good producing mare Lady Jakeo.

The colt was named Meadow Lane and was sent to the stables of Gai Waterhouse where in two barrier trials at Randwick, he was found to be decidedly slow.

In fact so poor were his trials he was not even given a chance to step out on a raceday. The colt was then given the snip and as a gelding and was shipped off to the Macau stables of two times Champion trainer K H Leong, and without going into the finer details, at a mere fraction of his original purchase price.

Pearl Green didn’t exactly catch the eye in a three horse trial late February, however it was obvious that there was some talent there with a third place to Ideal Smart Horse on the turf in March, after striking some trouble in the run and racing greenly.

The gelding stepped out on the sand for two nice runs after, with a fourth and a good second last start behind Military Attack after being very wide the trip and racing greenly.

On Saturday there was no such drama with Brazilian rider Ruan Maia firing the three year old of the gates to sit outside race favorite Eangle Commander. Once in the straight Pearl Green powered away for an easy win in the good time of 1.21.9 for the 1350 metres.

Pearl Green will continue to improve and once again proves the age old line of thinking that if you have a young well bred horse, and lightly raced, given time there is always scope for improvement.

Mister Kaopu who formerly raced as Intrusion in Australia, is another smart galloper that ended up in the K H Leong yard at a small fraction of his $600,000 Aud. price tag. A son of Redoute’s Choice Mister Kaopu was won four races and placed three from nine starts in Macau and is already well over the $1 million HKD money bracket.

Saturday’s racing belonged to Ruan Maia who kicked home four of the eight winners on the card.

Maia is rising quickly on the jockey’s championship table and after the weekend sits on 21 winners and fifth spot on the jockeys table. It’s a great effort given that he only arrived in December. Add to that the lack of decent rides early on; the twenty nine year old has really made inroads in the last couple of months.

Maia made it a quick double for the afternoon with Vancouver Jaguar running out an easy winner in second of the day the Class 3 over 1510 metres.

The promising Win Win Friendship made it three for Maia with an all the way win in the Maiden over 1200 (turf) metres in a very slick 1.08.7.

Win Win Friendship is son of the Danehill sire Gold Centre who is a full brother to Elvstroem and a half to Haradasun. The three year old is going places judging by the ease of his win and the run time which was on par with good Class 2 company.

River Control rang up number four for the day for Maia with a win in the last the Class 2 & 3 over 1500 metres (turf).

The victory was not without its drama however as River Control a son of Choisir (Aus) proved a difficult ride for the Brazilian when he lay in badly causing some crowding to runners to his inside. The four year went to the line on one rein but managed to scramble home by three quarters to Capital Protector (Wayne Smith), with Achilles Sword (Andrew Calder) a nose way in third.

Maia has impressed all with his work ethic at the track in the morning and is able to ride at 116 pounds comfortably.

Former Hong Kong apprentice Kevin Leung notched up his first Macau winner with Evergreen Star leading throughout to win the Class 1 & 2 over 1050 metres (sand) on Saturday.

Leung who is the twin brother to much respected Hong Kong rider Derek Leung, is making a comeback to racing after giving the game away some four years ago while based at Cambridge in New Zealand with Tony Pike, where he was the leading apprentice.

“I liked New Zealand and the people it was a great experience but it was difficult to make any money there.”

“I also rode for a while in Tasmania before going back to Hong Kong. It was all good experience.” Leung said.

Leung has 74 career winners under his belt and is apprentice in Macau to Tony Fung who was instrumental in resurrecting his career.

Able to ride at 115 pounds and still claiming five pounds, Leung will find himself in plenty of demand now that he has broken the ice in the enclave.