Syndicate simply 'Gaga' over mighty Molly

While Super Molly bids to provide Basil Marcus with a fairytale result in Sunday's Hong Kong Derby, you can be sure his syndicate of owners will enjoy their day out cheering a horse which already owes them absolutely nothing. Marcus may well be saying farewell to racing on Sunday but Super Molly's owners are nearer to the other end of the scale of experience, some of them novices or near enough.

The ultra-consistent David Hayes-trained gelding runs under the black and white colours of a group carrying the intriguing collective name of the Gaga Syndicate - and apparently the things that make them go 'ga ga' are golf and, more recently, racing. 'It stands for the Gentlemen And Golf Association,' says the syndicate spokesman Lam Kin-ning, who likes to be known by his initials. 'We are just a little group of professional people who like to play golf together. Then we came up with the idea to get a racehorse as well. Our days at the racetrack are always very happy, social days. Usually a lot of our members come to see Super Molly racing and they also bring along their friends. It is a happy group.'

An architect by trade, K. N. gave Hayes a reasonably tall order to fill when the Gaga Syndicate decided to move into racing but the trainer has met his end of the deal. 'At the time, David had Meridian Star racing up through his classes and winning a lot, so I asked David to choose us a good horse from Lindsay Park - actually I asked him for one as good as Meridian Star,' Lam laughs. 'I had owned a racehorse before and he was an unlucky horse, so I was hoping to have a better one this time.'

Few Hong Kong horses win seven races, let alone seven from 14 starts, and Lam is justifiably proud of Hayes' choice.

'David said he would try his best to buy us another Meridian Star but Super Molly has been more successful than I could ever really have hoped,' Lam says. 'He is the highest stakes money earner of all the four-year-olds in Hong Kong, more than any other horse on Sunday. And he has no leg problems. With other horses, their form goes up and down all the time but he is able to maintain his form so well because he is always in good health. Every time he runs, he races well and that is a lot of fun for our members.'

But for the Derby, Lam said the step up in distance for the son of the sprinting sire Snippets would be the greatest concern. 'Whether he can win the Derby, I don't know,' Lam says. 'He has never tried 2,000 metres before and I am worried about that, of course. But he is in top form and, after all, if he has never tried the distance, you don't really know. Maybe he could run it. Anyway, Super Molly has a great racing heart and maybe he can run a place. If he can even do that, we will all be very satisfied.'