Grand Cru leaves Moore just three wins from magical 1,000 mark

John Moore continued his slow march through the 'nervous 90s' when recent acquisition Grand Cru comfortably won the Macau-Taipa Bridge Handicap at only the third time of asking.

Moore leaves on Tuesday to saddle up Viva Macau for owner Stanley Ho Hung-sun at the big 'Super Thursday' meeting in Dubai and was glad to be departing with the wind in his sails.

'I thought before the race that he was well placed in this class and Darren [Beadman] has capped it off with a really gun ride,' Moore said.

Before yesterday, Grand Cru had won just one of his 15 starts and was regarded in some circles as ungenuine. But the experience that has so far gleaned Moore 997 Hong Kong winners has taught him to be careful of making sweeping assumptions about a horse's character in this unique environment. 'We basically went over him from top to bottom and found a few issues that were troubling him,' Moore said. 'Now that we are aware of what they are, we can manage the problems and hopefully that might mean he can win another one at the bottom of Class Two.'

Moore trained his 990th winner when Craig's Dragon scored on January 1, but becoming the first to get to the magical 1,000 wins has been a longer process than he would have liked.

'But isn't that always the way with those big milestones?' he asked. 'The last few winners seem to take forever.'

Gary Ng Ting-keung was quick to acknowledge the judgment of pace shown by lightweight Eddie Lai Wai-ming after Royal Pericles had won his second race on the all-weather (race eight).