Guitar man one minute off the stage the next
FORMER HONG Kong jockey Marco Chui had no time to celebrate his spectacular winning ride on Stratocaster at Hastings yesterday – in the very next race he caused severe interference and was suspended for a month.
Chui was the toast of the big crowd on the opening day of the Hawkes Bay spring carnival when he notched his second winning ride here, unleashing Stratocaster from well back in the field and sweeping down the centre of the track to win the $20,000 Guineas Prelude like a budding star, upstaging several more fancied rivals.
But a few minutes later Chui was on the mat for careless riding, described as being at the top end of the scale, when he caused a fall and a rival horse to sustain possible career- ending injuries.
When Chui angled Nigelissima away from the inside fence with about 300 metres to run, he cannoned into race favourite Pondarosa Miss, causing her to stumble and unseat rider Daniel Hain.
Ponderosa Miss struck her head on the ground in the incident, suffering a suspected head fracture and other injuries which may prevent her from racing again.
The High Chaparral mare, trained at Te Awamutu by Peter Hollinshead, was the winner of three races from just seven starts and had been chasing a hat-trick yesterday.
Stipendiary steward Neil Goodwin said Chui’s careless riding was at the top end of the scale and the rider was suspended from after today’s racing at Te Aroha until September 28.
It was a deflating result for Chui who rode 83 winners in his homeland and was leading Hong Kong apprentice in 2008.
Chui then rode in Perth from 2011 to 2013 where he kicked home a further 65 winners before coming to New Zealand earlier this year.
Chui, who has ridden Stratocaster in both his starts - he was slow away in his debut at Ruakaka - described him as a raw talent.
‘‘I think he is going to be a very good horse,’’ Chui said.
‘‘He missed the start in his first race and today he was off and on the speed and kept wanting to lay in up the straight. But when I got him balanced up, he was full of running.’’
The rattling finish which the Mastercraftsman three- year- old turned on confirmed the high opinion Cambridge trainer Emma-Lee Browne has of the horse who has now earned a start in the Group II $ 100,000 Hawkes Bay Guineas on October 4.
‘‘We’ll definitely be back here for the guineas,’’ an elated Browne said after the horse rocked punters by winning at odds of more than 15 to one.
Browne and her husband David thought so much of Stratocaster as a yearling they paid $100,000 for him from the Windsor Park Stud draft, at the premier session of the Karaka sales.
‘‘At
that
stage we
didn’t
have
any other owners for the horse but he was such a good type we were confident we would soon get some.’’
Stratocaster is now raced by the Very Musical Syndicate, a group of 40 people that includes both David and Emma-Lee Browne. He is out of the Irish-bred mare Very Musical and gets his name from the Stratocaster guitar.
Stratocaster left no excuses for the beaten brigade, although runner-up Turn Me Loose and Amun Ra, third, are both expected to improve with their runs.
Amun Ra’s rider Matthew Cameron said the colt wasn’t helped when he dropped his whip over the final stages.
‘‘It was a top run by him to finish so close,’’ Cameron said. ‘‘ He’s a colt who probably needed a couple with the stick to get the best out of him.’’
Miss Selby took a step towards a start in the $250,000 Livamol Classic on the final day of the carnival with an emphatic winning return.
The O’Reilly mare was having her first start since contesting the ATC Oaks ( 2400m) in Sydney last April when she lined up in the $30,000 Livamol Sprint.
Outpaced in the early stages, she had only two behind her approaching the home turn but once rider Shannon Doyle angled her to the outside she accelerated quickly and surged ahead to win by half a length. ‘‘She is very classy,’’ Doyle said. Miss Selby will probably now head to the $ 70,000 Merial Metric Mile (1600m) at Awapuni in a fortnight.