3 minute read

Brazilian rider Ruan Maia stole the show at Macau’s Summer Trophy meeting at Taipa by kicking home a sparkling four timer on the seven event card.

Maia, strongly fancied to take out the Macau jockey’s championship this season, took untiul the fourth race to kick off his big day with a win on Wonderful Story in the 30 to 55 rated Handicap over 1500 metres.

Wonderful Story appreciated the step up in distance and found the line too well under Maia to win from the fast finishing Machmaster (Horace Lam), with Haayil Shadow (Akash Aucharuz) in third.

Prepared by Joe Lau Wonderful Story is a former Chris Waller galloper who disappointed in Sydney with two ordinary efforts from his only two runs.

That said, one run was in the 2016 Inglis Classic at Randwick where he was beaten seven lengths behind Twist Tops, so he was always going to be competitive in Class 4 & 5 company in Macau.

There was then no stopping Maia as he proceeded to clean up the rest of the program following up with Lucky Today from the Tony Fung yard in the Class 4 over 1200 metres.

Lucky Today has not graced the winners circle for over twelve months but showed a glimpse of his old self with a powerful finish to go right over the top of Flying Antelope (Akash Aucharuz), with Valiant Soldier (Luis Corrales) in third.

Maia rounded out his day in winning the final two races for the combined yard of Rambo Tse and K C (Paul) Wong on two highly promising horses in Yang Jiang hero and Unselfish Trust.

Yang Jiang Hero is destined for the top of the class following his dazzling win in the Class 2 over 1200 metres to make it three from three in Macau.

A son of Duporth, Yang Jiang Hero at odds of $1.6 never gave punters any cause for concern when he zipped across from gate nine to lead on the bridle, before powering away in the straight for an easy win.

Yang Jiang Hero is a former Gerald Ryan cast off who raced in New South Wales as Who Said It’s Easy.

An easy winner of a Gosford maiden and good enough to place in Saturday company at Randwick, Who Said It’s Easy obviously didn’t live up to initial expectations for his owners and was sold onto Macau.

Arriving on a rating of 65 Yang Jiang Hero is already on a mark of 90 after Saturdays win and there is plenty more to come for a horse that would not be out of place in Hong Kong.

Maia’s last winner Unselfish Trust looks to be another smart buy from Australia and is headed for bigger and better things.

Unselfish Trust flew the gates and led easily under Maia before kicking away for a nice win and held off a late charge by Contented ‘N “ Happy (Peter Ho), with Wonder Holy (Andrew Calder) in third.

Racing in Australia as Butch Kissidy the gelding won two races from his eight starts there when prepared by Mick Price.

By Wanted from an Elusive Quality mare The Fairy’s Kiss, Unselfish Trust will no doubt be a force to be reckoned with on the all weather surface as well.

The James Moore trained Red Dragon caused a major upset when he bounced back to form under Cliffy Lai to win Saturdays feature the Group 2 Summer Trophy over 1050 metres on the sand surface.

Sent out friendless at odds of $600.00 for the win, Red Dragon shrugged off his tough run deep in transit to blow away the hot favorite Evergreen Star (Peter Ho) to win by a half length with Invincible (Breinell Yamzon) a nose away in third.

A six year old US-bred son of First Samarui, Red Dragon showed good promise early on when he arrived in the enclave winning four races on the all weather, however his form had tapered off in recent times.

Saturday’s win saw him right back to his best clocking 1.01.8 which is close to his personal best for the trip at 1.01.6.