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Brazilian jockey Ruan Maia sounded an ominous warning to his rivals on the opening day of the new Macau season when he booted home a winning treble to lay an early claim for premiership honors.

Maia along with Irishman Wayne Smith were the two big finishers in the standings last season with Maia finishing fourth on 31 wins, four behind Smith on 40.

What made Maia’s effort so outstanding was that he only commenced riding in the enclave in December after missing the first three months of the season.

Add to that the fact that it took him 19 rides to land his first winner on God Get People for trainer Stanley Chin.

January was also pretty lean with just two wins and half of the month spent on the sidelines with a careless riding suspensions and February was meaner with just one victory for the month.

It wasn’t until mid March that Maia really established himself in the riding ranks.

Maia showed on Saturday that he really means business this season with the 29-year-old off to a flying start on the promising Win Win Friendship for trainer K C Chong in the Macau Racehorse Owners Association Plate over 1200 metres.

Win Win Friendship made it three wins straight when he led throughout and held on stoutly to win narrowly over Winner Fortune (Wayne Smith, with Lucky and Fortune (Cliffy Lai) running on well for third.

By the Danehill sire Gold Centre who is a full brother to Elvstroem and a half to Haradsun, Win Win Friendship looks destined for the top bracket with his three wins from only four career starts to date. His only defeat was a second on debut on the sand.

Win Win Friendship is strongly built and has a great turn of foot away from the gates. He has also proven in his four runs that he is adept on any type of going.

River Pearl from the Sio Cheong stable was the second of Maia’s winners when seen in a different role ridden off the speed.

The 4YO mare powered home down the outside to win running away in the 0 to 55 rated event over 1200 metres.

A daughter of the New Zealand Derby winner Jimmy Choux, River Pearl has always been ridden madly for speed and on most occasions has weakened late in her races but Maia parked back on seventh spot in the run and she was a completely different racehorse over the final 200m.

River Pearl’s time on the yielding to soft track of 1.12.1 was .02 slicker then Win Win Friendship in the previous race.

The combined stable of Rambo Tse and K C Wong have got something really special in Yang Jiang Hero, who gave Maia his treble for the day in the Macau Racehorse Owners Association Bowl over 1200 metres.

Yang Jiang Hero led from barrier rise and bolted in giving nothing else a chance in the C2 rated event and made it two wins from as many starts in Macau.

The gelding was originally trained in Australia by Gerald Ryan where he raced as Who Said It’s Easy.

An easy win in a Gosford maiden and a placing in Saturday company at Randwick would have made him a prime type for a berth in Hong Kong.

However his rating of 65 didn’t make the grade under the new 70 rated bar for Hong Kong.

Trainer Danny Wong took out Saturday’s feature with the Macau Racehorse Owners Association Cup over 1500 metres with the former West Australian galloper Wichita Linesman who scored his fourth win in Macau.

Ridden by Horace Lam, Wichita Linesman found himself in a great spot in the run to be fifth the rails once in the back straight.

The gelding then found himself on the back of the leader and stablemate Oh So Easy coming to the corner before issuing his challenge.

Krsytrump (Wayne Smith) who had followed Wichita Linesman in the run really laid it down to Wichita Linesman over the last two hundred in a great battle, but in the end it was Wichita Linesman who prevailed by a head on the line.

Wichita Linesman has been a great value purchase by Danny Wong who bought him as a late three year after looking at his wins in West Australia.

“He was very honest with three wins from seven starts mostly in the country areas there.” Wong said.

“You can get a nice horse as a late three year old as once they turn four in Australia and are not going to make it in the group races they sell them off. “

“This horse was not expensive and he was only starting to fully mature when I got him.”

Wichita Linesman, by Danehill Express, took out the 4YO Prelude a Group 3 contest last March and with Saturdays win has earned over $HK1 million already for his connections.

Globetrotting jockey Ryan Curatolo kicked home a winning double on Saturday’s card winning on Tous Sweet for James Moore in the 25 to 45 event over 1200 metres and Same Beauty for Alan Tam in the 40 70 rated contest over 1800 metres.

Curatolo is based in Japan until December but had ridden a double in his one night stand in Singapore prior to flying out to commence his Japanese stint.

Curatolo wasted no time in riding two winners in Tokyo soon after arriving.

Saturday was the deferred Macau Racehorse Owners Association Race Day originally scheduled for August 26 but canceled when Macau was left reeling after the ferocity of Typhoon Hato which caused massive damage to the Taipa racetrack and surroundings.