Angland shocks himself and punters with a massive 1,944-1 double
Tye Angland surprised himself with a longshot double that also left punters puzzled as his pair of breakthrough winners scored at combined odds of 1,944-1.
Me Tsui Yu-sak's Safari Magic - coming into a Class Four off two dismal last-place efforts - burst through at 72-1, before Danny Shum Chap-shing produced Pride And Honour (27-1) for an impressive first-up win on the dirt.
Angland had his doubts about Safari Magic before the straight race, as the three-year-old had trouble finding his way to the start safely.
'He had no idea going to the gates. Me told me to give him a warm up, but he was very green,' Angland said.
Once out and running, Angland found the favoured outside rail and took a perfect position behind the speed, before squeezing through a gap late to win by a neck.
'Going for the run he was a bit reluctant and tight, but once he got his head through he was fine,' he said.
Tsui wasn't getting carried away with the victory, pointing to unreliable place-getter Dane Patrol as a gauge of the race's strength.
'This race was very weak. When Dane Patrol finishes third you know it's a very bad race,' said Tsui, who put his horse's first two failures, both over 1,200m, down to mental immaturity.
'The first two starts around a bend, he didn't handle the turn. He is not experienced enough,' he said. 'In the barrier trial over 1,000m he went well, so we came back to the 1,000m, but we were still surprised.'
Angland was already hard at work at the half mile on his second winner, after he was stuck three deep with no cover from gate 13.
The grinding 1,650m battle seemed to suit Pride And Honour, a US-bred stayer in the making, who collected two of his three wins in England on polytracks over 2,400m.
'I had time to work into him and he needs that,' said Angland. 'If I was locked in behind them, I would have got out and it would have been all over. The further he goes, the better he'll be.
'He is a bit one-paced, but he's got a future. He is a nice big calm horse and hopefully he can keep on improving.'
