John Moore saddled four of the five runners in Sunday’s Gr3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup (2400m) at Sha Tin and won it with an outsider after Chefano to give the trainer a sixth win in the race.
Helene Leadingstar was the only horse in the race not trained by Moore and started favourite with punters momentarily counting their winnings as Karis Teetan challenged on the home turn.
Chefano was headed briefly but stayed on strongly to the line for a two and a quarter-length success over the pursuing Savvy Nine and his first at stakes level.
Matthew Chadwick told the HKJC he was confident his mount could outstay his rivals.
“He travelled early, got an easy time in front and he was always going to outstay them,” Chadwick said.
“I thought his run last time was the best of John’s horses and he had improvement to come, so I thought he was as good if not better than the favourite.”
Group 2 placed in his native South Africa, Chefano was winning his third race in Hong Kong.
“I said he’d stay all day,” Moore said. “He’s by a sire, Silvano, who went over a mile and a half and he was off a light weight, so from that point of view I had no worries about getting the distance.
“I wasn’t sure about whether Chadwick would be able to get him to travel because he’d never been on him before and this horse can be a little lazy from the 600 (metres) on – he can start to drop the speed a bit but he got the best out of him when they took him on and the horse outstayed them.”
Moore said Chefano will now face stronger opposition later this month in the last of Hong Kong’s three 2400m races.
“He’ll go to the (Gr1) Champions & Chater Cup but that’s set-weights so it’s going to be much more difficult. I will consider the Champions & Chater Cup for my other runners,” Moore said.