The Gary Moore prepared Lucky Twin Star shrugged off his wide draw under apprentice Martin Cangas to score a dominant win in the Audi Cup over 1200 metres on the turf at Taipa on Saturday.
Jumping from barrier 14 Lucky Twin Star was revved up early by the seven pound claimer to share the lead with Felsham (Louis Corrales) with these two setting up a clear margin over the rest of the field before the corner.
Lucky Twin Star raced clear over the final two hundred metres to win by three and a quarter lengths from Felsham, with Montaquila running home best of the rest for third.
The win was the second leg of a winning double for Martin Cangas who won the previous the Audi A5 Handicap on Cargo Merchant.
Although friendless in the betting at $224.00 Lucky Twin Star was given some hope by the stable even from the wide draw.
“Mr. Moore told me to go forward on the lead but prefer I did not go right to the rails on the soft track.” Cangas said.
“He felt good under me in the run and I just stayed in the middle, when I looked at the big screen (infield) he was well clear at the last.”
With Cargo Merchant in the Audi A5 Handicap Cangas heeded the advice of Louis Corrales to send the USA bred gelding to the front and from then dictated the speed to a nicety.
Cargo Merchant just kept finding over the final stages to hold off a late charge by race favorite Let Go (Manoel Nunes) who is trained by Cangas master Geoff Allendorf, with Mighty Thor (Peter Ho) in third.
“Louis (Corrales) has ridden the horse a lot and he told me that he is lot better horse if he leads," Cangas said.
“He has been finding it harder to get to the front in the shorter races lately, but I thought at 1500 metres and no real leader there I would ride hard to lead with him.”
“Once he got there he travelled good and he just kept on fighting back.”
Cangas is now on 11 winners for the season two behind Cash Wong who leads on 13, with the apprentice's title race shaping up as an interesting battle for the last half of the season.
French apprentice Charles Perkins has kicked home seven winners since he commenced riding on January 13 and with all three apprentices in great demand an intriguing finish looms.
Cangas was one of three apprentices recruited from the Philippines in December 2008 to fill the shortfall of local applicants at the Apprentice Training School in MJC.
A former track work rider at Santa Ana Park Racetrack in the Philippines, Cangas along with Breinell Yamzon and Jonie Pescuiso jumped at the opportunity to have a career in Macau.
All three have proven their worth with Pescuiso champion apprentice in his first season and Yamzon establishing himself as a very competent lightweight rider in the enclave.
Gary Moore won the last of the day the Class 4 & 5 with Good Lucky over 1500 metres on the sand to hold a two win lead on 38 over Alan Tam's 36 in the trainer's standings.
* NEW Zealand import Perfect Alvin ridden by Tiago Pereira gave trainer Joe Lau the first leg of a winning double when he fought back tenaciously to beat Bowl Brothers (Martin Cangas) and Turquoise Dragon (Graham Gibbons) to win the Audi Quattro 1500 metres on the turf.
It was the second win for the son of Chianti who has a liking for rain affected ground and appreciated the step up to 1500 metres.
The gelding won a maiden at Rotorua over 1400 metres in New Zealand on soft ground from two starts there prior to being imported to Macau, and will relish the wet tracks with the advent of summer.
Wonderful Steed gave Lau his second win of the day when he raced away with the Class 5 & 5 over 1050 metres on the sand in class record time of 1.02.7.
Ridden by Manoel Nunes, Wonderful Steed broke through after 11 starts to win well from Good racing (Tiago Pereira), with Short Cut (Rambo Tse) in third.
The win gave Lau 17 winners for the season and 14 placed efforts from his 120 runners.
A winning double on Saturday took Manoel Nunes to 37 winners and a two win lead over Fausto Durso (35) with Stanley Chin in third on 30.
