DEFENDING champion trainer Charles Leck saddled up a stunning 2,304-1 Taipa treble yesterday to keep chasing Frenchman Claude Charlet safely in check - for the time being at least.
Leck is enjoying a purple patch at the moment having saddled up a career-best five winners on Derby Day.
The hard-working Charlet, who would love to win the title, had to wait until yesterday's final event before landing his lone winner for the day.
Normally horses from the Leck stable do not go out at whopping prices and the value in yesterday's tasty treble was supplied by shock 24-1 winner All Good in the Class Four fifth event.
It was also the first leg of a winning double for Australian rider Colin Dean who completed it on the second Leck winner, the topweight Happy Wonderland (2-1).
In a trying day for punters at Taipa, the classy Happy Wonderland was the only favourite to oblige on the mammoth 11-race programme. Three others ran into the frame but many short-priced fancies bit the dust in no uncertain fashion. And the Macau Jockey Club's decision to run 11 races was not reflected in any increased totalisator turnover. There were 6,256 on course but only the virtually routine $21.9 million was turned over.