Majestic Falcon ready to soar back into action
Majestic Falcon won one of the slowest all-weather track trials of the season at Sha Tin yesterday, but the five-year-old achieved the primary objective in making a successful return from injury.
When winning the first leg of the Group Three Hong Kong Macau Trophy in March, Majestic Falcon was on one rein as he crossed the line, and post race it became apparent why.
The gelding had re-injured a leg and was clearly keeping weight off the affected limb in the closing stages, but not enough to stop him from recording a narrow victory which could have easily been by more.
After more than a month off the training track, followed by a steady build-up in the mornings, the John Moore-trained runner re-entered the fray and he did his work steadily in a 1,050m dirt heat.
With a rating now at 98, the former Irish sprinter will have to be at his best to compete up in the top grades.
Brett Prebble let Majestic Falcon settle out of the gates as stablemate Business As Usual fought Tim Clark in front, with speedy Aerosa (Alex Lai Hoi-wing) sitting outside him as the leaders walked.
Prebble pulled to the outside at the turn but maintained a firm hold as Majestic Falcon scored by three-quarters of a length in an astonishingly slow time of 1.05.35, admittedly on a surface rated wet to slow.
Another of Moore's runners, Frederick Engels (Clark), is clearly much better than he has shown in his four starts since arriving, and he was required to trial to the satisfaction of stewards after a particularly pigheaded effort at his last start.
Frederick Engels got his head up in the air last start when fancied in betting and wasn't competitive.
Clark got the three-year-old to settle well back in last yesterday, and then manoeuvred through the field to dead-heat with Andy Leung Ting-wah's Daily Double (Lai).
