Sacred caps off a great season for Lau
Sacred Capital (6 g ex Honolulu by Savabeel) made it back-to-back Macau Gold Cups (Listed, 1800m) in a heart-stopping finish when he prevailed by a nose over Star Of Yiu Cheung (Casino Prince) in Sunday’s event over 1800 metres at the Taipa race track.
Ridden by Peter Ho, Sacred Capital was put into a lovely position from barrier 11 to be fourth on the rail soon after they turned out of the straight.
Star Of Yiu Cheung, under Fausto Henrique, had set up a clear lead as they went into the back straight before Ho took the initiative to let Sacred Capital stride forward to get on his tail from the 800-metre point.
Coming to the home turn, it was obvious that the Gold Cup was just a two-horse affair; Sacred Capital went after Star Of Yiu Cheung and the pair went head-to-head over the last 100 metres, with Sacred Capital just getting the bob in on the line to win the Macau Group 1.
Prepared by master trainer Joe Lau, Sacred Capital was coming off a brilliant win in the Chairman’s Memorial Cup (Listed, 1200m) on Derby Day, also a Macau Group 1, and Sunday’s win was his fourth local Group 1 victory.
The lovely-looking son of O’Reilly is the perfect racehorse, having won from 1050 metres on the sand to 1800 metres on the turf. He handles any type of going and, in races from 1500 metres and upwards, he has enough speed to put himself into a gun position irrespective of the draw.
“That was a great win. He really had to dig in hard there to beat Star Of Yiu Cheung who I think is an outstanding racehorse,” Lau said. “It was another great ride by Peter and again the horse gave his all and we had to break the race record to win it.
“I’ve had some good horses over the years like Crown’s Master, Crown’s Gift and Polish Warrior, they all won lots of big races for me, but this horse is the best. He is so versatile and a complete racehorse.”
Sacred Capital’s time of 1.45.8 snipped .01 off Wonder Mossman’s (Mossman) class standard set in 2013 and is now the Macau Gold Cup record time.
Lau made it a quick double for the afternoon when The Macallan (Rock ‘n’ Pop) under jockey C F “Charlie” Chan led throughout to bolt away with the Class 2 & 3 over 1800 metres.
Taking control of the race out of the gates, The Macallan rolled along freely in front before stretching his lead over his rivals from the 600 metres. It was game over at the top of the straight as the six-year-old ran to the 250 metres with a six-length margin before coasting to the line for an easy win over Fantastic Friends (Denman) with Magnapegasus (Magnus) a close third.
“He needs a firm track and likes to roll along on the lead, and the way the track was playing to the front runners he was going to take some running down today,” Lau said. “It’s another great day and it’s all a team effort with my assistant trainer Wil Heffernan and all the staff who share the credit.”
The Macallan – like Sacred Capital – is raced by Eric Chen Ching Lung. The double capped off a great season for both owner and trainer: Eric Chen’s superb four-year-old Sacred Magnate (Foxwedge) grabbed a last-stride victory over Star Of Yiu Cheung in the SJM Derby last month, giving the owner his fourth Macau Derby. Sunday added a second Macau Gold Cup.
Fortune Treasure (Dalakhani) has been a model of consistency for trainer K H Leong since arriving in Macau, and on Sunday he picked up his first local Group victory in taking out the Macau Sprint Trophy (Listed, 1200m), a Macau Group 3.
Ridden by Japanese rider Shogo Nakano, Fortune Treasure showed great determination to go home too strong to win over the fast finishing Mountain Tiger (Coats Choice) with Luen On Poseidon (Pierro) in third.
Fortune Treasure is a former Mick Price trainee that raced in Victoria as Smoke Signal. He won a maiden race at Sale in Victoria from his seven starts for the Price yard.
The gelding loves the 1200 metres of the Taipa track, having now won six races over the trip with a further six placed efforts; add to that two wins over 1050 metres on the all weather and he has been a very nice buy for owner Leung King Wui.
The final race of the season went to the Patrick Lee-trained Dutch Shell (Al Maher), who scored per medium of a lovely ride under apprentice Eric Cheung to take out the Class 4 over 1500 metres.
Cheung did a superb job of navigating a path from gate nine to find the rails by the first turn into the back.
The gelding travelled nicely in the run midfield on the rails before easing into space at the top of the straight, and went home too well for Georgian Ease (Super Easy), with the fast-finishing Satono Eternal (Deep Impact) flying from the tail of the field for third.
It capped off a nice season for former Champion trainer Lee who only operates a small team nowadays. He trained 24 winners from only 124 runners and picked up 15 placings as well.
For Cheung, it was win number 19 for the season after missing a few months at the beginning of the season through injury.
Luis Corrales was crowned Champion Macau Jockey for the fifth time on Sunday with 57 winners; he prevailed over Fausto Henrique and Roger Yu who both recorded 40 winners apiece. Eric Cheung took out the Apprentices Title on 19 wins.
Tony Fung won his second Champion Trainers’ Title with 43 winners, well clear of Danny Wong and Geoff Allendorf in second place on 32 victories each.