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He aligned himself with John Moore early in his Hong Kong career and now Vagner Borges’ relationship with another legendary trainer continues to go from strength to strength.
Half of Borges’ 16 winners in 2019-20 came for Moore – still the most success the 28-year-old has had with any Hong Kong trainer – and he now has six victories for John Size after piloting Sight Success to victory in the Class Two High West Handicap (1,200m) at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.
Three of the unfashionable Brazilian’s five winners this season have come for the 11-time champion trainer and he’s even picked up the ride on Group One-winning sprinter Hot King Prawn for next Sunday’s Group Two Jockey Club Sprint (1,200m).
“It’s great to get support from John Size and Hot King Prawn is a really good horse. Things are going the right way for me at the moment,” Borges said. “I’m going to be on a very good horse next week and hopefully we can do something good.”
Borges improved his record aboard Sight Success to two from two after also winning aboard the five-year-old over the Valley 1,000m on October 31, this time taking a sit one-out, one-back rather than leading before slingshotting into the straight and doing enough to salute.
“He ran really well last time and he had improved a lot coming into this run,” Borges said. “I knew there was a good chance of him winning again and I’m glad he did.”
Benno Yung Tin-pang’s Ka Ying Master was a three-quarter-length second in his first run since July, while the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained Winning Method was a close third.
Size went onto secure his second double in as many meetings thanks to Scores Of Fun’s win in the second section of the Class Three Lung Fu Shan Handicap (1,200m), while Ricky Yiu Poon-fai was the other trainer with multiple successes.
After 11 placings during a four-week run of outs between the victory of Golden Link on October 10 and Darci Joy’s success at Sha Tin on Sunday, Yiu gave his season a nice kick along with an early double to take his tally to five wins for the campaign.
Yiu snared the Class Five Wan Chai Gap Handicap (1,650m) with Off The Reel to kick off the card and then Joyful Win was never headed in the third event, pinging out of gate eight under Matthew Chadwick to take out the Class Four Mount Gough Handicap (1,000m).
“The draws have started to get a little bit better so the majority of my horses are performing,” said Yiu, who had 13 seconds to go with his three winners heading into the midweek meeting.
“[Off The Reel] is very laid back but Zac [Purton] rode him well,” Yiu said. “He got him into the right position and got him going early coming into the straight.
“The horse wobbled a bit in the straight – he’s a bit of a thinker – but he’ll go up in class now and I’ll keep him at a mile.
“[Joyful Win] won two last season as a three-year-old and he’s not fully matured yet. He’s four now and Class Four is kind of easy for him, he’s on his way up – he’s improving all the time at trackwork and in his races.”
Manfred Man Ka-leung extended his winning run to nine consecutive meetings thanks to Ever Laugh’s win in the second section of the Class Four Victoria Gap Handicap (1,650m), with Luke Ferraris landing his fourth win of the term.
“It was a very good ride from Luke,” Man said. “This horse is eight years old now, but he’s in good form. We’ll keep him at 1,650m and see if he can win again.”
Purton also got the chocolates aboard the David Hayes-trained Red Majesty to share the riding honours with Joao Moreira, who got the job done aboard Scores Of Fun and championship leader Frankie Lor Fu-chuen’s Savvy Kingman.
Tony Cruz’s You’remyeverything produced a slashing victory in his Hong Kong debut to round out the evening, with the four-year-old – who was undefeated in two starts in Australia – finishing strongly under Alexis Badel to nab the first section of the Lung Fu Shan Handicap as a $17.80 chance.
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