Basil Marcus celebrated his return from a three-week holiday with a birthday winner as he stoked up Chuk Way to take the third race by a head from Glasgow Kiss. The narrow win provided trainer Andy Leung Ting-wah with the first leg of a double, later completed by Choice And Chance, and left Marcus with an even wider grin than usual.
The seven-times champion jockey, who turned 45 yesterday, said: 'It's nice to come back with a winner, especially on my birthday. In fact, the race meetings here have fallen on January 5 a couple of times before and I was lucky enough to win on a horse called Happy Birthday.'
Marcus left for vacation immediately after the International meeting on December 16 and returned only on Thursday after spending the holiday season with his family in South Africa. But he showed no sign of rustiness as he got the better of old rival Douglas Whyte despite being kept at least three wide throughout the 1,400-metre event.
'I was drawn 11 and I was looking to get in the whole time, but there was nowhere for me to go,' said Marcus after moving to the 16-winner mark. 'When I did manage to get in on the turn, I got bumped out again, but my horse responded very well in the straight. He was very game.'
Choice And Chance in turn was the first leg of Frenchman Eric Legrix's winning double, which he completed with lightly raced Unbreakable in the 1,000-metre seventh event. 'He is a very nice young sprinter,' Legrix said. 'He is a big baby, still looking around in the race, but I think he can make a nice horse. Right now, 1,000 metres is good for him but he will do 1,200, too.'
Winning trainer Alex Wong Yu-on said he had been impressed by the stock of Unbreakable's young sire, O'Reilly. 'I like these horses and I have another one coming,' he warned. 'I like them because they fight on. Actually, I saw a third one I liked in New Zealand but they wanted too much money for him. Unfortunately, I am not the only one who likes them and they are becoming more expensive.'