Three winners over the weekends racing took Japanese rider Masakazu (Masa) Tanaka to 17 winners for the season, and fifth place in the Jockeys’ rankings, as he starts to reel in the leading trio of Luis Corrales, Eric Cheung and Peter Ho. Tanaka in fact has been in great form since the start of the Year Of The Ox, with five winners for the last three meetings in February.

Honey Biscuit got Tanaka on the scoreboard Friday night with hard fought win over Rayson Warrior in the Class 6 over 1510 metres. On a rain-soaked night on the sand, Honey Biscuit just refused to concede to Rayson Warrior, who fought back stoutly under Peter Ho to go down by a neck, with Yatholing (Breinell Yamzon) back in third.

It was win number four for Honey Biscuit who is prepared by Stephen Chow, with six other placings from his 30 starts, with the five year now close to the $700,000 HKD mark in prize money.

Whilst the rain was gone by Saturday it left conditions on the turf very soft; that played right into the hands of the six-year-old galloper Fully Realised, who broke his maiden status under Tanaka in the first of the day the Class 6 over 1200 metres.

Also prepared by Stephen Chow, Fully Realised was still a maiden after 21 starts with only four placings to his credit. The perseverance by owner Mr. Yeung Kam Wing, who also races Honey Biscuit eventually paid off, and the son of Fully Fledged (NZ) could well pick up a couple of more wins down in the lower grade on the wet summer tracks.

The soft turf conditions were also a friend to the former Victorian galloper Golden Key, who led throughout under Tanaka to win the Class 4 over 1200 metres, to notch up win number two in the enclave for the son of Pins (Aus).

Prepared in Macau by Champion trainer Tony Fung, Golden Key is a much-traveled horse that originally kicked off his career in New Zealand in the stables of Jim Collett at Matamata, where he had three unplaced runs, before being shipped to Victoria to the yard of Matthew Ellerton & Simon Zahra.

From 12 starts in Victoria the gelding won two races and made the quinella spot three times, all on soft tracks and even running a nice second at Moonee Valley, before being sold onto Macau. One would have thought the gelding would be perfect for Macau where we do have more than our share of wet tracks, in particular in the monsoon season. However, in his 25 runs in Macau, Golden Key has only struck five genuinely wet tracks, resulting in two wins now and three placings. Unfortunately for the now six-year-old he is not a fan of the sand; that said after Saturday’s win he has picked up over $450,000 HKD for his owner Mr. Chan Wing Kwan.

Masa Tanaka like Golden Key has done his share of traveling. After completing his apprenticeship at Racing Queensland’s Apprentice Academy, Tanaka commenced riding in New Zealand where he competed his time and rode as a senior rider for a number of seasons. His major victory in NZ came by way of Booming in the Group 1 Thorndon Mile. Tanaka then set his sights on Korea and rode more than 150 winners in four seasons there.

Wanting to broaden his horizons, Tanaka arrived in Macau in January last year just before the Covid – 19 Virus hit the world. After a frustrating start he managed to kick home his first winner in March for trainer Geoff Allendorf aboard Luen On Success, and went on to finish the season in August with 12 winners.

A big break came for Tanaka when he was asked by former Champion trainer Stanley Chin to join the stable, sharing the bulk of the rides with Eric Cheung: after a slow start to the season, he is really starting to hit his stride, and whenever possible is finding his services being utilized by many other trainers.

New Zealand galloper Qian Gua was another that appreciated the wet conditions and made it three wins over the 1800 metre course, in the Class 2 & 3 Handicap under Filipino rider Breinell Yamzon.

Qian Gua is a six-year-old son of Cape Blanco (Ire), who won two races in New Zealand under the care of Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards, as well as placing five times from his 16 runs there.

Prepared in Macau by K H Leong, the gelding relishes the wet tracks and the staying trips. His three wins in the enclave have yielded close to $650,000 HKD for his owner Mr. Hon Shu Ping.

There is nothing like a wet track to throw in an upset, and that’s exactly how things unfolded in the Class 2 & 3 Handicap over 1500 metres with Electroplate Alloy pulling off a surprise win.

Ridden by Roger Yu and prepared by Alan Tam, Electroplate Alloy loved the very soft conditions to lead throughout and bolt in over race favorite and Derby hopeful Nuclear Fusion (Peter Ho), with Victory Moment (Dayversom Barros) in in third.

Electroplate Alloy was at his peak rating and up in grade, but no one told him that with the son of Golden Archer giving nothing else a chance in the run. The five-year-old has been a great buy for owners Lee Yuen Fat and Lau Pang, who picked up the gelding for the modest sum of A$37,500 at the 2017 Inglis Ready 2 Race Sales.

After Saturday’s win his record stands at 28 starts for six wins, 12 seconds and close to $1.5 million HKD in prize money.

Both Nuclear Fusion who raced in Australia as Mandela, and Beauty Bolt who performed in group company in Victoria, even running a creditable fourth in the VRC Oaks at Flemington, were expected to dominate the race. However, as he old saying goes, “there are no certainties in racing.” Nuclear Fusion got through the conditions fairly well, whilst early Derby favorite Beauty Bolt struggled to run fifth beaten seven and quarter lengths.