Marcus Muscles Way to Valley Equitrack Double

It will take a brave man to back against Marcus retaining his title for a fourth successive time.

He was his usual ebullient self as he left the track. There's no doubt he thrives on riding winners. 'I only had four rides but I thought they would run well,' he said.

'I'll sleep easy tonight and it puts me in a great frame of mind for the weekend. 'While it may only have been an equitrack meeting, they all add up at the end of the season. 'My view is that each race is as important as the next. Class Six or Class One, I'm in there to win them.' Strawberry Ridge looked a nice horse in the making when leading from his inside draw in the second to hold Mr Bunny by a comfortable 11/4 lengths.

The son of Strawberry Road is bred to show his full potential over farther than last night's 1,400 metres and should win again this season, especially over a mile or 1,800 metres.

Bambi came into last night's final race in cracking form, having run two close seconds on his most recent outings.

He benefited from Everwell Times, his obvious form danger, having no luck in running, first when squeezed by Bambi coming out of the stalls and then when taken wide by Aim On Kris at the first bend.

All the same, it was still a dominant win from Bambi who held Saafi by three parts of a length.

Saafi, an equitrack specialist, will be all the better for the outing and is one to keep on the right side of on the dirt.

That old racing adage 'horses for courses' was well and truly underlined in the opening event when Always There made every metre of the running to double second-season trainer Stephen Leung's score for the campaign.

Always There, notching his fourth course-and-distance victory over the minimum equitrack sprint distance of 1,030 metres, never looked like being pegged back by runner-up Aubade, who appeared to hang in when apprentice Martin Tsang asked him for his effort in the straight.

Tony Cruz chose wisely in the fourth, preferring John Moore's Super Bomb to his brother Derek's Classic Turbo.

Regal Ridge and Happy Landing set a good clip but it was Super Bomb who dashed to the front under Cruz with 200 metres to run for a strong three-length victory.

Darren Gauci and Neville Begg have been in tremendous form all season.

Outsider Palette Star continued that run when getting up close to home under a powerful finish from Gauci to catch Star Of Marble in the fourth.

Palette Star, who had missed work at the beginning of last month, was brought out wide coming off the final bend to deliver his challenge otherwise he would have won more comfortably.

He clearly revelled in racing on the equitrack and should win again on this surface, especially over a farther.

Eddie K. C. Lo's Never Say Tired took an uncompetitive Class Six fifth event, rallying to run down Raider's Luck who enjoyed the run of the race.