South African apprentice Ryan Roberts produced a peach of a ride to snatch victory on Natural Fortune in yesterday's Macau Apprentice Jockeys Invitation Cup. The showpiece 1,800-metre event was run at a furious pace with Stanley coming from off the speed to challenge last and tellingly on the Paul Leung-trained galloper. Natural Fortune, set specifically for this contest by the former John Moore assistant, grabbed Bill Tung's State Express in the dying strides. The Lucky Warrior, a thorough stayer, battled on gamely but very much at one pace for third. Hong Kong's leading apprentice Eddie Lai was out of luck at Taipa. He drew the non-staying mudlark D. J. Baker in the Cup and was back-pedalling before halfway. Lai's mount in the Bowl, Asian Glory, was always struggling to get into the 1,500-metre event won by the highly promising Caramba from debutant Window Friend who was given a strong ride by the star Japanese claimer Dai Okada with Al Salute a creditable third. Caramba made all the running to record a quality win under the unheralded 22-year-old Korean claimer, Oh Myeong-seob. Caramba has now won his last two starts and looks worth following. Lai's two best mounts on the rest of the programme looked to be Richwell Star in the third and Noble Prize in the ninth. He gave Richwell Star every possible chance before weakening in the last 100 metres but Noble Prize had a very bad day at the office. He never gave a yelp, despite being strongly supported into favouritism, and dropped out to finish a dismal last. Elsewhere on the card, French trainer Claude Charlet landed a griffin coup with his heavily backed youngsters Toy's Story and Speedy Power taking the two griffin events. Toy's Story won under former Hong Kong jockey Rambo Tse Wai-ho while Brian Kan's old jockey, Brent Thomson, celebrated his 40th birthday in style with a dashing victory on plunge horse Star Of Kam Pik in the third.
