By Harry Troy, Macau Jockey Club
First season trainer Nick Moore continued on his winning way in taking out Sunday’s feature The Association Of Macau Racing Journalist Cup over 1050 metres with the very promising Hostwin Poseidon.
Ridden by Luis Corrales, Hostwin Poseidon made light of gate 11 to cross and share the lead with Silent Height to the top of the straight, before being sent into overdrive by Corrales inside the two hundred. The three year old darted away and went to the post strongly to beat the fast finishing Invincible (Eric Cheung), with Star Of Yiu Sun (Roger Yu) a nose away in third.
Hostwin Poseidon was an A$85,000 purchase at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast 2YO’s in Training Sale by owner Mr. Jason Tam on the advice of Nick Moore.
A son of the 2011 July Cup winner at Royal Ascot Dream Ahead (USA), Hostwin Poseidon is out of the Stratum mare Abrasions. Sunday was the three year old gelding’s third start taking his record to two wins and a third on debut.
“That was a very good win he got squeezed at the start and then recovered to go through and race on the speed. They went hard and Luis did a great job as he held him together until well in the straight and he was strong at the finish.” Moore said. “He will keep improving and that was still only his third start.”
It’s been a magnificent start to his training career for Nick Moore who was only licensed by the MJC after the beginning of the new season in October, and did not a have a runner until December. In fact Moore only had a total of 12 starters until he got on the scoreboard with his first winner Sport Genius on February 22nd.
Moore showed great patience with his small team of initially eight horses and it wasn’t until March that he started to make his presence felt with horses like Hostwin Saturn, Hostwin Shadow and Hostwin Euphoria.
The crowning glory for the season was the big win by Hostwin Saturn in the Group 1 Macau Guineas over 1500 metres in June, before the horse ran a mighty race in the Derby after a slow getaway and looping the field mid race to lead before fading to run 6th, only beaten five lengths behind Sacred Magnate.
“Yes I’ve had a great start with just a small team and I have thank all my owners for their support, especially Mr. Jason Tam, he really got me going here. He has another horse on the next shipment so that will give me 13 horses for the time being.”
“For next season I’ll just look to improve myself but it’s been a bit unfortunate with Covid-19 hitting as I have not been able to capitalize on my winners. You know you have to get out and socialize to source more owners, and of course the Covid virus has affected a lot of business people that are very cautious at the moment about buying new horses. So we will just have to wait it out.”
Nick Moore with his 13 winners, eight seconds and 10 third placed efforts from just 67 runners this season, has the best stats of any trainer in the enclave with a 19% win rate and a 46% place rate.
