French rider Olivier Doleuze bought Noble Alpha with a well timed run to win Sunday’s Macau- Hong Kong Trophy at Taipa and give the Hong Kong side its third victory in the Macau leg of the interport series.
Photo by HKJC
Prepared by Michael Chang Noble Alpha reveled in the testing heavy conditions to prevail by a neck from Macau’s Lucky Jai (Wayne Smith), with another local runner Oakcrest Drive (Andrew Calder) a neck away third with Real Supreme the other Hong Kong entrant close up in fourth.
Noble Alpha is a six year old Irish bred gelding who commenced his career under top conditioner Mario Hofer in Germany, winning once at Frankfurt and placing at Group 2 level in Cologne.
The gelding arrived in Hong Kong in early 2011 and prior to Sunday had managed only one win for Michael Chang in October of that year, but had been consistent of late and was aided by a lovely patient ride by Doleuze, who with the benefit of some local knowledge found the better part of the track.
Olivier Doleuze is considered one of the world’s premier jockeys and is no stranger to racing in the enclave winning the Derby last year on Elderly Paradise.
Doleuze was a huge hit in Macau in late 2003 winning over 40 races in a three month period and rarely goes home without a winner whenever he rides at the Taipa track.
It was the tenth running of the Trophy which has seen local horses dominate the series on the Macau side with the score seven from nine prior to Sunday.
Alan Tam’s Luck Of Smiling was another that benefited from patient efforts from both the barrier staff and jockey Charles Perkins to win the other Group 1 on the day the Chairman’s Challenge Cup over 1200 metres.
Traditionally a difficult horse to load the son of Elusive City was at his absolute worst on Sunday and for a while looked in real danger of not taking his place in the prestigious event.
Perseverance paid off and the $2.9 favorite was eventually loaded then had to overcome a slow getaway and a nasty check approaching the 900m.
Perkins balanced the gelding up and made steady improvement approaching the turn before unleashing a powerful burst to reel in Lucky Twin Star (Matthew Chadwick) and win running away by two and quarter lengths, with Alan Tam’s other runner My Pony (Wayne Smith) getting into third.
The win gave a Tam a double on the day with Elderly Paradise winning the Group 3 Grand Lisboa Cup over 1500 metres.
Fresh up from successful Dubai trip where he won the Bab El Shams, Elderly Paradise lifted late under Andrew Calder to beat Dr.Sweet (Matthew Chadwick), and My Dark Chocolate (Fausto Durso).
Other feature winners on the day were Sino Brilhante (Stanley Chin) in the G3 Star River - Windsor Arch Sand Classic Cup over 1350 metres, and Geely Spirit (Fausto Durso) in the G3 Oceanus Cup over 1600 metres.
Both horses are prepared by Gary Moore.
