It was finally Hong Kong's turn in the third of the interport races and who else but Hong Kong's home-grown hero, Tony Cruz, should take responsibility for restoring local pride, conjuring a brilliant win from reform school star Helene Pillaging ($113).
The former Australian Group One winner had been winless in 16 Hong Kong races before transferring to Cruz's care this season but is now an entirely different animal, as his Cruz formline of three wins and two placings from five starts clearly testifies.
With Helene Pillaging leading the way home by two lengths, the Hong Kong horses completely stole the show. Goody (Anthony Delpech) stormed home late for a meritorious second, with the ultra-honest My Choice running another cracking race for third.
Favourite Rock N Roll Kid figured best of the six Macau visitors, finishing fourth, a half head behind My Choice. Strategy (Manuel Nunes) finished sixth, beaten 51/2 lengths, but the other four horses finished in the last five placings.
John Didham, who rode Rock N Roll Kid, later said he was 'happy enough' with the run of the Macau Gold Cup winner, but said 1,400 metres was at the very bottom of his distance range.
'Malcolm has kept him nice and fresh for this but, really, he's better over something longer,' Didham said. 'His best win in Macau was at 1,800 metres. Today, I thought I would run second when we came to the home turn and he's battled on really well. Realistically, he was only a few inches away from finishing second. It was a pretty good run, we're not too disappointed.'
The Hong Kong one-two-three will give Macau Jockey Club executives ammunition for a fresh round of negotiations for the allowance Macau horses receive from their Hong Kong counterparts, which was set at 17 pounds last year and was reduced to 15 pounds after Macau-trained Crown's Gift won both friendship races in 2004.