Former champion apprentice Mark Lei has made the perfect comeback to race riding with a winner on his first night back at Taipa on Friday.

Lei, who had not ridden in a race since November 2000 produced a confident ride on the K C Wong trained Irish Pearl to win the Class 3 & 4 over 1600 metres.

Irish Pearl was bet down to a $2.6 favorite just before the off with Lei firing the gelding up out of the gates to get across from his wide draw and park just off the speed running into the back.

When the early leader Hand By Hand surrendered at the seven hundred Lei had no hesitation in letting Irish Pearl stride away to a clear lead, then had them all chasing around the bend for home before going right on with the job for a clear win.

Lei who commenced his apprenticeship under the legendary George Moore in Macau, was a huge hit as a junior rider and shared champion apprentice honors with C F (Charlie Chan) in 1997, riding a treble on the last day of the season to tie the score.

His biggest win was the 1997 Macau Derby on Creative Stories as an apprentice in April 1997 on a horse that was primarily thought of as a 1050 metre sand sprinter, but on the day Lei gave the horse a perfect ride from the back to win the race at huge odds.

Mark Lei still remains the only apprentice to win the Macau Derby and rode 73 winners prior to hanging up his saddle in 2000.

For Mark Lei it was not an easy decision, but the answer was family.

“I had a few race falls and the last one I spent over a month in hospital.” Lei said.

“I had a family and young children and my family were all concerned that the business was too dangerous and that I had my children to think of.”

Lei has been working for the past 12 years in the family business both in Macau and Shenzhen but has always maintained his interest in racing.

“I always followed the racing and missed it a lot.”

“My youngest child is now 12 years old and I decided that if I did not come back now I would be too old to do it in a few more years.”

“Most of my family came to the races to support me on Friday and it’s a great start back.”

The win also continued the good season for trainer K C Wong who also made a comeback to the business in September last year after six years away from the game.

Wong has done a superb job with eight individual runners from his small team of 11 to date for 10 winners and 14 placed efforts from 56 starters, giving him the best strike rate in town of 18% win and 43% placed, with Gary Moore the next best on 15% win and 31% placed.

Irish Pearl was his sole runner for the night.

The night’s feature the Selangor Turf Club Goodwill Cup was won by the Victor Chan prepared Har Har Money ridden by Fausto Durso.

Heavily bet late Har Har Money just kept on kicking under Durso to hold on and beat Fighting Kite (Louis Corrales), with Luen Yat Supreme (Luis Jurado) in third.

* CRAIG Marshall enjoyed his best day ever as a trainer with all three of his runners saluting on Friday night’s sand card.

The well graded Blackjack Star was the first of Marshall’s winners when he kept on kicking under Irish rider Wayne Smith to win the Class 5 over 1050 metres.

Chiu Chow Knight made it win number six on the all weather surface per medium of a nice ride by Andrew Calder to win the Class 2 & 3 over 1600 metres, with Good Racing rounding out Marshall’s night again with Wayne Smith on top to win the Class 4 & 5 over 1350 metres.

The night was a welcome return to the winners circle at Taipa again for visiting rider Wayne Smith who spends the bulk of his time riding in Dubai.

A former champion jockey in Dubai, Wayne Smith was clearly the leading rider at the Jebel Ali racetrack this season with close to a fifty percent strike rate.

A much traveled rider since he completed his apprenticeship in Ireland Smith has ridden as far afield as Germany, Dubai, Hong Kong, Qatar, Australia and Bahrain.

Among his biggest wins have been the UAE Derby, the UAE Guineas and the Qatar Derby.