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Hong Kong Waltz to victory again

Team Macau out of their depth as home contingent fill top seven places

The overall record might not suggest it but the Hong Kong Macau Trophy is well on the way to becoming the Hong Kong cakewalk, which was anticipated by many before it ever came into being, after the local runners dominated yesterday's renewal of the Group Three feature.

John Size's Slow Waltz (Felix Coetzee) prevailed in a slogging finish by a neck over My Choice, with Full Of Joy and River Jordan only inches away, and locals filled the fifth sixth and seventh spots as well.

And while the Macau runners were far from disgraced in finishing only three lengths from the winner - Continued Success in particular after clearly blowing the start - they never looked likely to be finishing any closer.

'Not making any excuses, the Hong Kong horses were too good. But we're light on numbers of horses generally at present and horses of the class needed for this in particular, though it must be said three of our best horses are over in Dubai at the moment, too,' said David Fisher, Macau's director of racing.

'The other thing is that 1,400 metres is probably not exactly the right distance for our horses. Hopefully they'll give Hong Kong more of a run for their money next time.'

Slow Waltz's victory made it four Hong Kong wins from the five interport events run on this side of the Pearl River Delta - Tiber grabbing the result in 2007 after a positive swab returned by Macau's Crown's Master - though the Macau runners have won three of the four at Taipa and it remains to be seen if they can be more prominent on their home ground.

For Slow Waltz, it was a triumphant return after almost three months away from racing and a third win over the Sha Tin 1,400m course.

'It's a pretty good effort,' said Size. 'He had a temperature in December and it was a setback. You could see on the line he was getting tired today so he's done well.

'He does love the 1,400 metres here but like a lot of these honest sorts of horses, he's raced himself up into the hundreds in the ratings with this win and I think he's going to find it a bit tougher from now on.'

Coetzee had won in the interport series races twice before - Helene Pillaging in Macau in 2005 and Happee Owner at Sha Tin two years ago - and on a day when he was the star of the Sha Tin show, collecting the feature was just par for the course.

'The key to him today was the weight, I thought,' Coetzee said. 'He was getting quite a bit of weight off those horses at the top and with 118 pounds I really wanted to be close to the lead and use that advantage so we went forward outside the heels of Egyptian Ra.

'As we started the turn, Slow Waltz started feeling stronger and stronger and the last part of the home turn he really took himself up to the leader,' he added.

But it didn't all happen quite so comfortably down the running before the number went into the frame.

'He wanted to lay in with me when I won on him before, and did it again today,' Coetzee said.

'If he had found the rail, he would have been fine and it would have been an easier win. But Egyptian Ra just wouldn't go away, so I was mindful of keeping Slow Waltz straight but still trying to keep him going forward as strongly as he could.'

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