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Brazilian horseman Ruan Maia has surged further ahead in the Macau rider standings with another dazzling four timer on last Saturday’s Autumn Trophy race day at Taipa.

Maia who was a big finisher in last season’s Jockeys’ Championships, has kicked this season off with his heart set on being the leading rider. The twenty nine year old has come out of the gates flying with a treble on opening day on September 23rd, plus two four timer’s since then, and on both those occasions unlucky not to make it five for that day.

Meaning Strong from the combined stable of Rambo Tse and K C Wong was the first of Maia’s four winners when he easily accounted for his rivals in the Special Conditions Handicap over 1200 metres on the turf.

Meaning Strong a son of Pendragon (NZ) broke his maiden status in good fashion and posted a respectable 1.09.5 for the journey, suggesting he will pick up a few more in the lower grade.

The feature of the day the Group 2 Autumn Trophy might have eluded Maia with his luckless second on the favorite Sacred Missile, but after that there was no stopping him and he retaliated quickly with a big win on Pearl Green in the next the Class 2 & 3 over 1500 metres.

Pearl Green made it five wins in a row when he powered away from the pack at the two hundred to continue his rapid rise up through the standings. The four year old started his winning run on a lowly 38 mark and after Saturday will be close to 70. The son of Fastnet Rock (Aud) has been a great acquisition for owner Chan Ming Wing and has all the attributes of a serious Derby contender written all over him.

In the 30 to 60 rated contest over 1800 metres Maia bought the Joe Lau trained Basement home from a perfectly placed run in transit to beat Flying Team (Martin Wepner, with Roaring Star (Peter Ho) close up in third spot.

This gave Maia three for the day and he was quick to add the fourth on Niubi Emperor in the next event the 30 to 55 rated Handicap over 1200 metres.

Niubi which is Chinese for “Awesome” is a fitting name for the big imposing son of Duke Of Marmalade (Ire) who made it three wins from his four starts in Macau on Saturday.

Going to scale at 1260 pounds Niubi Emperor was formerly raced by Gerry Harvey and had two trials in Australia at Randwick under the moniker of He Went That Way. Looking decidedly slow the gelding was sold onto Macau and has developed into a lovely big horse that is going places, and proved on Saturday that he can handle any surface wet or firm on the turf.

Maia at present is on twelve wins in the rider’s standings four ahead of last year’s Champion rider Peter Ho on eight, with Wayne Smith in third spot on five.

Wayne Smith turned in something of a miracle ride on the Peter Leyshan prepared Krystrump in the final event of the afternoon the 1st Division of the Class 2 & 3 over 1500 metres.

Krystrump was sent out a warm favorite at $30.00 and was drawn ideally in gate number three to get the run of the race in a contest with good speed.

The plans all went astray out of the gates with Krystrump being squeezed out at the jump from Tuhao Power and Same Beauty who were drawn either side of him. Shuffled well back and on the back of horses that were going nowhere, the son of New Trumps (Ire) was in need of a miracle coming to the home turn when spotting the leaders twelve lengths. In the straight the field opened up and Smith began navigating a passage through the field, but the chances of winning still looked forlorn and the gelding even wanted to lay in behind the pack. Space appeared one hundred metres out and Krystrump literally jumped out of the ground to win by a neck from Chromium Alloy (Horace Lam), with Winter Snow (Andrew Calder) in third.

The time of 1.26.8 was close to Wonder Mossman’s Macau Gold Cup winning time of 1.26.6 from 2016.

“That was some win.” Jockey Wayne Smith commented.

“We got flattened out of the gates and I was a lot further back then I wanted to be and behind horses going nowhere.”

“But good horses always get you out of trouble and he is a real good horse this fellow.”

The win was a the second leg of a double for Wayne Smith after he gave a faultless front running display on Surdmaster to win the 25 to 45 rated contest over 1500 metres.

James Moore’s Kelowna Star made it back to wins in the Group 2 Autumn Trophy under a perfect Peter Ho ride to win in identical time of 1.39.0 to what he posted in the 1600 metre sand contest last year.

Ho made full use of his good gate to travel mid against the rail before improving just before the corner. With the leaders rolling away from the rails once heads were turned for home Kelowna Star clicked into overdrive and with a brilliant turn of foot burst to the front along the rails. Race favorite Sacred Missile who had no luck at all from his outside barrier of twelve tried valiantly to narrow the margin, but went down by a length and a quarter on the wire, with Winbeauty Infinity (Kevin Leung) a whisker away in third.

The win by Kelowna Star ended the winning sequence of Sacred Missile who had been uneaten in for runs prior.

Kelowna Star has now won five races and placed eight times in Macau with over $2.5 million in prize money earned.