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The Tony Fung trained Exceedingly Dragon made it three wins from five starts at Taipa with an easy victory over 1000m on Saturday’s turf card.
Racing on a very testing heavy track Exceedingly Dragon was confidently bet down to favorite despite being untried on heavy conditions, and left his rivals in his wake defeating Show Smart (Wil Pao), with long space back to Lucky And Fortune (John Cordero) in third.
A product of the first of the MJC’s Online buys from the Gold Coast Magic Millions in 2014, Exceedingly Dragon had won two on the hop on the turf in September and October before failing as favorite in the Lisboa 3YO Challenge in November.However there were excuses that day with the gelding striking interference and ending up back near the tail of the field, before running on strongly late to wind up in fifth spot only beaten just over three lengths behind Gunstigmaster.
By the speedy Maribyrnong Plate winner Exceedingly Good, Exceedingly Dragon looks to have a bright future and with a win over 800 metres in a barrier trial on the sand looks the complete racehorse being able to handle any type of track.The victory on Exceedingly Dragon gave Peter Ho his sole winner for the afternoon and he still holds a two win margin over Luis Corrales in the jockeys’ premiership.
Luis Corrales also managed one win for the day with his joy coming on Chinese Dragon in the Class 4 & 5 over 1500 metres for trainer Peter Leyshan.Peter Leyshan had advised the MJC stewards panel prior to the race that they would attempt to lead from the inside gate with Chinese Dragon after the first two winners raced on the speed.
Chinese Dragon who at times has been a mixed bag on the heavy tracks could not muster the necessary speed to lead or in fact get close, and was losing ground against the rail from the eight hundred metres point.Corrales wisely left the fence and headed wide in search of better ground coming to the turn and then found the fast lane over the last two hundred to zoom down the outside to win well.
Whilst he has never been a superstar Chinese Dragon he has now won five and placed another 11 times from his 58 starts and is nudging the $1.2 million HKD in stakes money.Cliffy Lai continues to make the most of his opportunities in his comeback to race riding and notched up another victory on the Danny Wong prepared Oh So Easy in the last on the day the Class 2 over 1200 metres.
Lai had caused a massive upset with Oh So Easy back on January 3rd when he led throughout at odds of 100/1 to win over what was thought an unsuitable 1500 metres.Saturdays win was a repeat of that minus the flash price when the five year old gelding crossed easily from his wide gate to lead throughout and beat race favorite Master Of Assayer (Peter Ho), with My Lucky Baby (Cash Wong) close up in third.
Peter Lao is another that is well on the way to establishing himself back in the ranks of Macau’s top riders when he made it win number five since his comeback to race riding.Lao rode a nice race on the Louis Ho trained Turquoise Lucky to score a last stride win over Golden Champ in the Class 3 & 4 over 1500 metres.
Heading wide on straightening Lao also found some good ground and was able to grab the well supported Golden Champ (Charlie Chan) in the last bound, with Bowl Lucky (Andrew Calder) close up in third.