BASIL Marcus yesterday went into overdrive with a superlative 440-1 five-timer at Happy Valley's massively popular Saturday night meeting. The defending champion jockey, who never knows when he is beaten, opened his account with a typical pillar-to-post victory on Ivan Allan's Allocate in the first. He wasted no time in making it two when riding Alex Wong Yu-on's Right Stuff from up on the pace in the second to land a tidy little touch for connections. It was a similar show on Compradore in the fifth for retaining trainer David Hill before the South African made it four, this time coming from behind on David Oughton's favourite Clean Them Up in the sixth. His night was made complete when bringing Allan's Active King home an easy winner in the last. ''And it could have been six,'' laughed Marcus afterwards. ''I thought Snowmass was going to wear them down in the seventh but he just raced a bit greenly. ''Not that I'm complaining - it has been a most fantastic night, probably the best single day's racing I've experienced. ''You know it is such a thrill to even ride one winner a meeting in Hongkong, the racing is that competitive, so to ride five is a dream,'' added a jubilant Marcus who once had seven winners out of eight rides in Durban, South Africa. ''I've said in the past that if I can't win the championship again, I want to run second, which is just how I ride my races. If I can't win then I want to be second. If I can't be second, I want to be third. ''You have to be positive in the style of racing we have out here, and I love it.'' Marcus' five-timer took him to 39 winners for the season but he still has a yawning 13-winner gap to close if he is to catch runaway championship leader Tony Cruz, who was on the mark in the seventh with Talisburg for Gary Ng Ting-keung. The class win of the night for Marcus came on Compradore who showed the benefit of the application of blinkers for the first time to power away from Maraheb in the straight to take the fifth in a terrific time. Compradore clocked one minute 12.3 seconds for the 1,235-metre sprint, only 0.1 seconds outside Helene Star's all-time record for the trip, which appears to be Compradore's favourite distance. He was also successful in smart time over course and distanceearlier in the season. There were worrying signs as John Moore's Democrat pulled up in this event as his stride appeared to falter some 100 metres from the line. And all did not appear to be well with Neville Begg's Active Market. He went from first to last in the straight andis clearly not the horse he was. Active King also looked a very useful acquisition for the powerful Allan string when clearing right away from favourite Django in the last. But a measure of Compradore's quality is that he clocked a time 0.8 seconds, or about five lengths, faster than Active King's. Allan's double from Allocate and Active King took him to 21 winners and within striking distance of the championship but watch out for David Hill. His win from Compradore took him to 25 for the season and just three behind John Moore. Hill habitually has a prolific end to each season, given his patient style of training.
