Veteran trainer Tommy Tse got off to a nice start for the new season with a quick race to race double on Friday nights sand program.
Tse who only operates a small team nowadays, has formed a partnership with Louis Ho for the coming season and was off to a quick start on Friday with the Australia import Stadium, who bolted away with the Class 2 & 4 over 1050 metres under Cliffy Lai.
Stadium was disregarded by punters in the betting to jump at the juicy odds of 38/1. Despite being never better then four deep in the run, the gelding powered away over the final two hundred metres to win by four and three quarters from the other long shots in the race Ultra Light Alloy (Horace Lam), and Snowball (Roger Yu), who started at 30/1 and 60/1 respectively in what was a complete wipeout for punters.
A son of the Group 1 Woodbine Northern Dancer Turf Stakes winner Redwood (GB), Stadium broke his maiden status with Friday’s win after only placing for times in Macau from 15 starts.
Tommy Tse might have found the key with the now five year in keeping him fresh and restricting him to the all weather surface. The geldings winning time of 1.02.2 on a night when the sand was not riding quick was full of credit.
Duke De Vega was the second of Tse’s winner’s when the tough six year old son of Lope De Vega (Ire) easily put paid to a good quality Class 2 & 3 field over 1510 metres to score his third win in Macau.
Ridden by Roger Yu, Duke De Vega sat off the early leader Rocket Along before pinching a winning break at the two hundred, and had enough in reserve to hold off Chinese Dream (Wayne Smith), with race favorite Military Super (Peter Ho) in third.
In what was another blowout for punters Duke De Vega started at odds of 30/1 with the second place getter Chinese Dream jumping at 100/1.
Duke De Vega commenced his racing career under Chris Waller before being transferred to Andrew Williamson at the Sunshine Coast. His main claim to fame was a win in a Doomben Maiden under Jeff Lloyd when he defeated Ted, a horse that would later be exported to Hong Kong to race as Ping Hai Star that would go on to give John Size his third Hong Kong Derby.
Duke De Vega will never match Pin Hai Stars achievements by a long shot, but Tse has a good handy galloper that will continue to collect a prize money cheque for his owners the Golden Pistols Racing Syndicate.
Alan Tam’s five year old Same Beauty showed his liking for the 1510 metres course on the sand with another good win in the Class 1 & 2 on Friday night.
Ridden by regular rider Charlie Chan, Same Beauty was back with the cap catchers in the early part of the race before improving quickly coming to the home turn, and then produced his customary power finish to swoop down the outside for an easy victory.
The win was the third at the trip for the son of Showcasing (UK) with another three close seconds all under Charlie Chan who has formed a great affinity with the gelding.
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Stadium | 
Duke De Vega | 
Same Beauty |
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