3 minute read

Irish jockey Wayne Smith stole the show on Saturday’s Taipa program with a winning treble and two second placed efforts from his six rides.

Smith was on fire from the word go and guided race favorite Happy Vegetable to a good win in the first of the night the 0 to 55 rated contest over 1050 metres.

Prepared by Stephen Chow, Happy Vegetable made it back to back wins and looks a nice sprinter in the making judging by his smart time of 1.02.4, which compared favorably with the Class 3 winner Valormaster who posted 1.02.3 for the same distance.

First starter Bring Me Speed from the Kim Cheong yard put up a mighty effort to power home along the rails to snatch victory from the $1.5 favorite The Pirate King to win the 30 to 55 rated contest over 1050 metres.

Being Me Speed is a two year old son of Sebring from the city winner Jessica Rose, and had caught the eye in a barrier trial against the older and much higher rated horses on July 4 in running second.

That said there was not much stable confidence for the gelding for Saturday’s race with presence of the speedy one eyed galloper The Pirate King who had won two at the distance in fast run time.

Two things in Saturday’s race tilted things in Bring Me Speed’s favor.

The first was the fact that The Pirate King went very freely in front setting up a huge lead, and the second being the amount of extra ground he covered by racing at least three horses away from the rail in the run. As a result Bring Me Speed was able to rocket home in the straight on his inside and win by a neck.

Valormaster rounded out Wayne Smith’s day when he landed the cash in a thrilling three way finish in the Class 3 over 1050 metres.

Once again it was another ground saving inside ride by Smith that was the difference between victory and defeat. Valormaster got a lovely trial off the speed before darting through on the inside to hit the line well and win by short head from Baby Horse (Horace Lam), with Striking Achiever (Akash Aucharuz) a nose away in third.

The sand track has been riding very fair overall as far back as December last year following the complete refurbishment of the track with addition of a binding agent.

The upgrade was to help offset what was at most times an outside bias. The results speak for themselves with plenty of winners coming home strongly via the inside rail.

Saturday’s feature the Association Of Macau Racing Journalist’s Cup was won in grand style by the Peter Leyshan trained Chinese Dream ridden by Peter Ho.

Chinese Dream made it three wins from his last four starts when he raced away over the last 200m to easily beat Capitol Protector (Wayne Smith), with Thar (Akash Aucharuz) running in third.

Peter Ho looks set to take his first Macau Jockeys’ Title win with a nine win lead on 49 wins over Luis Corrales with only five race days to the end of the season.