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Racing Review
Another Win for Irish Flyer Fasuba - Lady of Fortune for Choi
2021-07-12 by Harry Troy

Another Win for Irish Flyer Fasuba

Allen Tam’s Irish import Fasuba has posted his 11th victory in Macau with another gutsy front running performance, in winning Friday nights Class 1 & 2 (1st Division), over 1510 metres on the all-weather surface under French rider J B Hamel.

Fasuba whilst not big in stature, has a giant-sized heart, and simply refused to surrender to Sheng Li Superstar (Luis Corrales), the biggest horse in the race, with the rising eight-year-old scoring by a head on the line, with almost four lengths back the race favorite Number Zero (Fausto Henrique) in third.

It was obvious a long way from home that the race was going to be a two-horse affair with Fasuba setting a swift tempo up front, with Sheng Li Superstar parked right on his tail. The duo had the rest of the field really stretched coming to the corner, before settling down for a David and Goliath like battle down the length of the straight.

Fasuba is named after the brilliant Nigerian sprinter Olusoji Fasuba, who is recognized as the fastest African runner of all time.

Living up to his name Fasuba is the current 1050 metre track record holder in 1.00.60, a mark he set in his fourth year when he was labeled as Macau’s best sprinter. While seven of the bay geldings’ wins have been at the 1050 metre journey, Tam pulled off a masterstroke in the 2019 Group 2 Autumn Trophy (sand), when he ran close to a track record time of 1.37.9 for the 1600 metres in an all the way victory at odds of 42/1.

Friday night’s win was his first at 1510 metres, with two other victories at 1350 metres, all on the sand, with his earnings now over the $3.2 million HKD mark.

Qian Gua is a Mandarin term that translates to the English phrase “to worry about,” and the New Zealand import certainly gave his rivals plenty to worry about, with a massive 11 ¼ lengths win in Friday night’s 2nd Division of the Class 1 & 2 over 1510 metres.

Prepared by K H Leong and ridden by Shogo Nakano, Qian Gua after racing outside the well fancied Crown Of Gold to the home turn, was let loose by Nakano in the home straight to simply destroy his opponents, it what was the biggest win seen on the all weather in a long while.

Qian Gua won two races from 16 starts in New Zealand, with five placed efforts and $25,475 NZD in prize money. Since arriving in Macau, he has now won five races and $1,096,040 HKD in stakes; that’s the equivalent of $201,000 NZD and there is more to come.

The son of Cape Blanco (Ire) is an all-round racehorse and has now won on good and heavy tracks on the turf, and has now proved his worth on the sand with his run time on Friday night of 1.33.9 just .02 slower then Fasuba in the stronger division.

Nakano made it a double for the night when scored a surprise win on the Rambo Tse prepared Shooting To Pins, in the last the Class 4 & 5 over 1050 metres.

In a remarkable training feat by Tse, Shooting to Pins was backing up from a struggling ninth beaten nine lengths over 1800 metres on the turf just six days prior. In an amazing performance the son of Pins (NZ) missed the start hopelessly and then came from a mile off to score a runaway win.




Fasuba


Qian Gua



Shooting To Pins

Lady of Fortune for Choi

Ricky Choi’s Fortune Lady made it four wins out of her last seven starts, with a last stride win over The Macallan (Eric Cheung), in Saturday’s Class 4 over 1800 metres on the turf.

Ridden by Roger Yu, Fortune Lady is one of very few mares racing in Macau, and in Saturday’s race going to scale at just 979 pounds, was one of the smallest horses in the field. However, what the mare lacks in stature she makes up for in heart. After beginning only fairly from her outside gate of ten, she did a bit of work in the run to eventually stride forward to sit outside the pacemaker The Macallan in the backstraight.

Once in the straight the mare laid it down to the much bigger horse The Macallan, and as well Roger Yu in what was a clever bit of riding, also shut the door on the stablemate Chinese Hero, locking him away behind The Macallan until the race was all over. In a deceiving finish Fortune Lady got the stride in right on the line to win by a nose.

Choi has done a fine job with the mare taking her from a mark of 25 to what will be a rating of 56 after Saturday.

With only a small team of 18 horses in his yard, Choi has had 13 winners from his 122 runners this season, with 30 placings to his credit giving him a place strike of 35%.

Iron horse Casino Mok scored a much-deserved win when he got up in the last bound to win Saturday’s Class 3 over 1200 metres for trainer Sio Cheung.

Ridden by Eric Cheung, Casino Mok settled in a third spot in a race run at a suicide pace set up by Diamond Moonlight, who had the field stretched out over 15 lengths down the side of track.

Once in the straight Cheung balanced up the son of Casino Prince (Aus) and he hit the line hard to beat, the unlucky Circuit Master (Breinell Yamzon) to win by a head, with the tiring Diamond Moonlight (Roger Yu) a half-length away in third.

Casino Mok who was saddling up his for 23rd run of the season, has been a model of consistency of late only missing a prize money cheque in two of his last 11 starts. Whilst he has only won two races for the season, he has seldom been out of a top three spot.

The now seven-year-old is a former Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained galloper who raced in Australia as Lord Macau. The gelding was originally an A$170,000 purchase at the 2015 Magic Millions Yearling Sales.

A much-travelled galloper, he raced from Randwick to Flemington and even Morphettville, with the end result three wins to his credit, one at Hawkesbury and two at Warwick Farm before being sold onto Macau.

The gelding has been a great money spinner in the enclave for new owner Mr. Mok Shing Fung, who purchased him for A$55,000 at the 2018 February Inglis Online Sales.

His Macau record now read six wins and 26 placed efforts from his 72 starts in the enclave and close to $2.2 Million HKD in prize money.

Hard luck story of the race was the Nick Moore trained Circuit Master who formally raced in Australia as Esperance, when prepared by James Cummings. The six-year-old was checked at the 800-corner losing a length and a half and was only defeated by a head on the line.




Fortune Lady (outside)


Roger Yu


Casino Mok (outside)



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