Moore winners for Nick at Taipa
Moore winners for Nick at Taipa
First season trainer Nick Moore continued his winning ways in taking out Sunday’s feature, The Association Of Macau Racing Journalists Cup over the Taipa 1050 metres, with the very promising Hostwin Poseidon (Dream Ahead).
Ridden by Luis Corrales, Hostwin Poseidon made light work of gate 11 to cross and share the lead with Silent Height (Redwood) to the top of the straight, before being sent into overdrive by Corrales inside the 200 metres. The three-year-old darted away and went to the post strongly to beat the fast-finishing Invincible (War Chant), with Star Of Yiu Sun (Swiss Ace) a nose away in third.
Hostwin Poseidon was an AUD$85,000 purchase at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast 2YOs In Training Sale by owner Jason Tam on the advice of Moore.
Sunday was the gelding’s third start taking his record to two wins after a third on debut.
“That was a very good win; he got squeezed at the start and then recovered to go through and race on the speed. They went hard and Luis did a great job as he held him together until well in the straight and he was strong at the finish.” Moore said. “He will keep improving and that was still only his third start.”
It has been a magnificent start to his training career for Moore, who was only licensed by the MJC after the beginning of the new season in October, and did not have a runner until December. In fact, Moore only had a total of 12 starters until he got on the scoreboard with his first winner Sport Genius (Ocean Park) on February 22.
Moore showed great patience with his small team of initially eight horses and it wasn’t until March that he started to make his presence felt with horses like Hostwin Saturn (Stratum), Hostwin Shadow (Longhorn) and Hostwin Euphoria (Street Boss).
The crowning glory for the season was the big win by Hostwin Saturn in the Macau Guineas (Listed, 1500m) in June, before the horse ran a mighty race in the Macau Derby (Listed, 1800m) after a slow getaway and looping the field mid-race to lead before fading to run sixth, only beaten five lengths behind Sacred Magnate (Foxwedge).
“I’ve had a great start with just a small team and I have thank all my owners for their support, especially Jason Tam – he really got me going here. He has another horse on the next shipment so that will give me 13 horses for the time being,” Moore said.
“For next season I’ll just look to improve myself but it’s been a bit unfortunate with Covid-19 hitting as I have not been able to capitalise on my winners. You know you have to get out and socialise to source more owners, and of course the Covid virus has affected a lot of business people that are very cautious at the moment about buying new horses. So we’ll just have to wait it out.”
Moore, with his 13 winners, eight seconds and 10 third-placed efforts from just 67 runners this season, has the best stats of any trainer in the enclave with a 19 per cent win rate and a 46 per cent place rate.
King Of Glamour (Eurozone) maintained his wonderful sand record with a gutsy win in the Class 2 over 1510 metres on Sunday’s mixed turf and sand program.
Prepared by Stanley Chin and ridden by stable apprentice Eric Cheung, King of Glamour dug in deep when headed by Simply Impeccable (Street Cry) to win by a short head on the line, with Tuhao Choice (Jakkalberry) back in third.
King Of Glamour has raced eight times on the all-weather surface for five wins, two seconds and one third-placed effort, with his biggest beaten margin one and quarter lengths.
For last season’s champion trainer Chin, it was win number 28 for the season and has him in fourth spot behind the 2018 champion trainer Tony Fung, who has safely secured his second title with 43 winners, 11 clear of Danny Wong with just one raceday to go.
For apprentice Cheung it was win number 18, a great effort after missing the start of the season due to injury.