Miraculous victory 'no surprise'
Heavily backed five-year-old repays Derek Cruz's faith to come good at 13th attempt
Top jockey Felix Coetzee jumped off Miraculous after a riverside gallop earlier this week and asked trainer Derek Cruz why the five-year-old was still a maiden.
'He worked terrific and Felix said, 'How has this horse still not won a race'?' Cruz laughed after the gelding justified massive betting support and trounced the Class Five field yesterday, a year to the meeting since Coetzee's first experience on him in Class Five.
Miraculous has been heavily bet on a couple of occasions recently, with his supporters leaving the money behind, but after being smashed down to $26 from $45 earlier in betting, the gelding was never going to lose this time.
'He was very nervous when he was younger, always sweating up and pulling in his races and he never helped himself that way,' Cruz said. 'But I think he has turned the corner.
'He's not sweating now, he's more relaxed and he's getting more confident. That win today will bring him on again in confidence and he still has not had a lot of racing for a horse his age. He hasn't been that easy to find the right races for so I ran him on the dirt last time but it was the wet dirt and he didn't like it.
'I freshened him up and brought him back to 1,400m here but I don't think it was the shorter distance that made the difference, just a case of things going right for him today.'
Lower-grade stayer Super Dana has been one of the surprises of the season to date, winning three races for trainer Almond Lee Yee-tat and did it the hard way this time as he arrived at 50-1 in the Somerset Handicap (2,000m).
'He's been in form all season,' Lee said after Alex Lai Hoi-wing steered Super Dana home despite having to sit wide on the track for much of the race.
'He has won at other distances but I do think that 2,000m is his best and Alex rode him well.'
Lai refused to let the race leader and favourite Durable get a break on the field, tackling him soon after straightening then holding off the late finish of Sea Treasure.
The Jockey Club continues to see positive betting turnover results even on an average meeting like the Sha Tin fixture yesterday with racing still coming down off a high with the Cathay Pacific International meeting on last Sunday.
With no significant jackpots this time and little in the way of a highlight race, the card still attracted over $858 million from punters.
As the season has gone on, the acceptance and understanding of the new rebate system appears to be increasing and the turnover rises more consistent.
'Another increase today of around $50 million and you can see the figures for the season are now running at around a six to 61/2 per cent increase year on year,' said chief executive designate Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges.
