It’s been a frustrating start to the season for jockey Steven Choi but the talented young rider put all that behind him with a nicely judged ride on the Gary Moore trained Dr Sweet in the G2 Winter Trophy at Taipa on January 5.
Dr Sweet upset his more fancied stablemates Good Uncle and Luen Yat Forever who were sent out first and second favorites respectively, when he bounded away inside the final two hundred to give Choi his first winner of the season from 95 rides.
Choi was the champion Macau apprentice in 2005-2006 with 41 winners but has found the going tough the past couple of seasons with time out through injury and lack of opportunity.
On Saturday he gave Dr Sweet, a horse considered suspect at the distance, plenty of time to settle out of the gates before steadily improving from the 800m to join the leader Victory Admiral approaching the turn.
He thendarted clear to beat Good Uncle (Stanley Chin) with Lucky Jai (Roger Yu) third just ahead of Luen Yat Forever.
For champion trainer Gary Moore it was his first Winter Trophy victory with the win taking him to 24 winners for the season, seven ahead of Alan Tam and Geoff Allendorf who are both on 17.
Moore saddled up four of the 10 runners with Good Uncle clearly the stable elect following a close second to Elderly Paradise at the distance at his last run.
Former Horse of the Year Luen Yat Forever was having his second start for the Moore yard and finished the race off nicely under Craig Grylls to be beaten two and a half lengths in fourth.
New Zealand rider Craig Grylls was in town just for the weekend.
He did not go home empty handed with a win on the sand on Friday night aboard Luen Yat Century and an all the way win on Luen Yat Plus Value on Saturday.
* CHAMPION apprentice Charles Perkins wasted no time getting back into the winners circle on his first day back with a win on Gauteng on Friday night for his master K H Leong.
Perkins bought Gauteng with a nicely timed run in a race run at good speed to get up in the nick of time from Turquoise Song (Horace Lam), with pace-maker Dare T’Live (Andy Helfenbein) a whisker away in third.
French born Perkins won on Gauteng at his very first race ride in Macau back in January, and then did an amazing job for the remainder of the season winning 28 races even after missing the final month of the season through a back injury resulting from a race fall in May.
Perkins rode for only two meetings at the start of this season before his back problems returned which forced him to take an extended period of treatment and rest before he was cleared to ride again.
* CHAMPION Korean rider Moon Seyoung got off to a good start for his three month stint in Macau with a win on the Alan Tam trained Mr. Excellency over 1200 metres on the turf on Saturday.
Seyoung gave Mr. Excellency a nice trial off the speed and then drove the gelding through an opening late to just score from Good Racing (Charles Perkins), with Multiwin (Andy Helfenbein) in third.
Seyoung who is based in Seoul comes with an impressive record of 4305 rides for a total of 774 winners including last year's Korean Derby.
Joining Moon Seyoung in the enclave for three months is Boo Minho also from Seoul who has ridden 92 winners from 1134 race rides.
