Visiting Japanese jockey Kakeru Mizuno scored the biggest win of his career when he rated the Alan Tam trained Fasuba to perfection for an all the way in Macau's Group 2 Summer Trophy at Taipa.
Fasuba is one the fastest horses in Macau and currently holds the 1050 metre track record of 1.00.60 with all of his six wins in the enclave at that distance.
However until Saturday he had never been able to go a yard past that distance, hence he was one of the first horses that punters put the pen through in Saturdays Trophy over 1350m on the sand.
Mizuno did a superb job of getting the tearaway sprinter to relax and come back under him and even though pressured for the lead by the highly fancied Sheng Li Superstar and River Bobo, he remained ice cool on the son of Power.
When Mizuno got to work on the Irish import he surprised by darting away and kept up a strong gallop to the wire to win by one and quarter lengths from race favorite Victory Megastar (Luis Corrales) with Sheng Li Superstar (Peter Ho) in third.
Mizuno, 22, is in Macau on a three month visiting licence until August 31.
A natural lightweight at 110 pounds he had ridden 78 winners prior to Saturday.
Fasuba has had six rides times in Ireland for a win at Dundalk and two third placings. His Macau record now reads six wins and three placings from his 12 starts.
Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Hamel is another new rider to get his name on the board at Taipa track when he gave a faultless display on the Victor Chan-trained Game Of Dreams to win the the Class 5 & 6 over 1200 metres.
Game Of Dreams proved a handful by being on one rein from the outset but Hamel did a masterly job to keep him on track and the five year old went to the line strongly to beat the heavily bet Éclair Supreme (Eric Cheung), with House Of Power (Stephane Ladjadj) in third.
Hamel is also in Macau on a three month visiting licence and had impressed with his riding displays notching up five placings.
With over 560 career winners to date Hamel has gained a wealth of experience riding outside of France in Germany, the UK, Spain, the UAE and Qatar.
Frankie Choi enjoyed his best weekend in a long while kicking home three winners over the two days racing.
Choi was champion Macau apprentice in the 2014/2015 season with 24 winners but has found things a bit leaner since his claim was reduced to three pounds.
However he showed over the weekend that given the right opportunities he can still deliver the goods.
Choi scored on Saturday in the Class 2 & 3 over 1350metres (sand)on the Danny Wong prepared Bada Baby and then landed the Pat Lee trained Go Go Mission in Sunday's Class 5 & 6 over 1200 metres on the turf.
The young rider then gave the K H Leong trained Fortune Treasure a perfect run in transit before peeling of the back of leaders for a half length win in the Class 1 & 2 over 1200 metres beating Unselfish Trust (Luis Corrales), with Mission Gdragon (Oscar Chavez) close up in third.
Leyshan's Sixth Sense Pays Off
It's been a long wait for Macau owners Mike Caddy and SP Hussain with their English import Sixth Sense but their patience is starting to pay dividends with the son of Shamardal picking up his second win for the pair in Sundays Class 2 & 3 over 1500 metres on the turf.
Prepared by Peter Leyshan and ridden by CF (Charlie) Chan, Sixth Sense came from well back in the field for a brilliant win over Bring Me Glory (Oscar Chavez), with Trillion King (Peter Ho) in third.
Sixth Sense is an interesting horse that originally began his racing career in the UK under the Darley banner of Sheikh Mohammed and prepared by Mark Johnston.
As a 2YO he won the Listed Winkfield Stakes at Ascot over seven furlongs under William Buick but the impressive gelding then developed chronic back problems and did not race for 12 months.
"We knew he had plenty of ability so that's why when he went through the tried horse sales at Newmarket we were prepared to take the chance," Leyshan said.
"He went for very little money for a horse of his type and breeding. He's by Shamardal out of a Sadler's Wells mare and I had a good feeling about him from the time I saw him.
"It's been a bit of a battle getting him right. He was notorious for not jumping away well and that was a result of his back problems but we've gradually been able to get on top of it now."
