ON SUNDAY AT SEOUL GANGPUNGMA FINALLY BROKE HIS BLACK TYPE DUCK WITH A BRILLIANT VICTORY IN THE PRINCIPAL LOCAL PREPARATION RACE FOR THE KOREA CUP.  ON THE UNDERCARD JAPANESE JOCKEY KOZZI ASANO rode A TREBLE WITH THE PROGRESSIVE HERO CHEETAH his main winner in the concluding 1200M Class 3 (writes Luke Humphreys).

The Tony Castanheira trained Hero Cheetah (Yaupon) MADE it three wins from five starts and that one loss aside. he has looked very smart. He was the 4.6 second favourite and scored by one-and-a-quarter lengths over the 2.8 favourite Korean Dream who attempted to lead throughout and lost no admirers in 2nd.

The other two victories for Asano came with CHAOS (To Honor And Serve) who won Race 2 (1200M Class 6) before MUNHAK CHUKJE (Blame) made it back-to-back course, distance, and grade victories in Race 7 (1600M Class 4). After finishing 3rd at his previous two attempts Chaos broke through at the fourth time of asking, leading throughout to score by three-quarters of a length as the 3.6 second choice over the 1.9 favourite Pieonari whilst Munhak Chukje scored by one-and-a-quarter lengths over the resuming 2.4 favourite JD Gangja.  Other favourites included KRA Cup Mile 3rd placegetter Chocolate, who was a never nearer 7^th.

The other jockey with multiple success on the day was apprentice Woo In-cheol who led for most of the way to score by four-lengths on 3.7 favourite ISIMNYEON SEWOL (Mischieviously) in Race 5 (1400M Class 5) before landing Race 8 (1800M Class 4) on GLOBAL COMPUTING (Cloud Computing) who was recording his first win at start nine. That was the upset of the day with Global Computing returning 24.4. He defeated the hat-trick seeking 5.4 second favourite Pasa Spark by a half-length with 7.5 third favourite Shining Road in 3rd. The two pacesetters in the race were the 2.0 favourite Gwanaksan Sky, who was previously unbeaten bar his 9th place in the Derby, and 7.6 fourth market choice Parisui Bulkkot and they burned their petrol too early and were beaten a long way from home ending up in 7th and 10th places in the full field of eleven.

GEUMJEOKSAN (Concord Point) continued her consistent record and made it back-to-back scores when winning Race 6 (1400M Class 4) as the 2.8 favourite by a diminishing two-and-a-half lengths. She shot to the lead early in the straight before getting extremely tired over the last furlong, but she had enough in hand to score by a decent enough margin.

AT BUSAN ON SUNDAY THE CONCLUDING 1400M CLASS 3 WAS THE MAIN RACE WITH GEUMA ADEPT being the easiest of winners and bookending the card for Seo Seung-un.

Geuma Adept (Complexity) was recording his fourth win at start nine and the 1.9 favourite scored by the softest of six-lengths over Julgeoun Donghang and Champ Sonny, 6.1. Fantastic Blue was 6th, 8.9, and Union Champ, 7.0, was 9th in the eleven strong field.

ANN BUNNY (Hansen) won Race 6 (1800M Class 4) by three-lengths in the Pegasus colours and in doing so made it consecutive wins at the grade following a 1600M win in June. The 2.0 favourite was the Seo Seung-un ridden and Thomas Gillespie prepared Fantastic Eagle, but he never got into the hunt finishing 6th.

There were two trainers with a double on the card and one of those was Baik Kwang-yeol who began his pair of victories when BEOLMAUI GEOIN (Concord Point) got up late on to win Race 2 (1600M Class 6) by three-quarters of a length over 1.9 favourite Gold Roger before OASIS ADELE (Shackleford) then led throughout to win Race 5 (1400M Class 5) by five-lengths as the 6.0 second market choice. The other was Kwon Sung-ju who prepared THUNDER WAVE (Brig) to win Race 1 (1200M Class 6) by five-lengths under Seo Seung-un, the first of his two wins in the saddle, prior to GUKDAE HERO (Hansen) being the second Gukdae winner of the weekend at a big price when landing Race 3 (1400M Class 4) by three-lengths at 28.9.

STEALTH KINGMAN (With Distinction) made it two wins from four starts to go alongside two 2nd places with a two-and-a-half length victory in Race 4 (1300M Class 5) at odds of 1.9 under Masa Tanaka. His two defeats have come behind smart horses, and he looks smart himself and a close eye must be kept on this three-year-old colt in the future. That was the first of two wins for trainer Lee Sang-young who subsequently had Geuma Adept follow up in fine style.

AT SEOUL ON SATURDAY THE MAIN ATTRACTION WAS THE DERBY WINNER HWANG GEUM EO JANG MAKING A RETURN IN RACE 9 OVER 1800M AT CLASS 2 GRADE TWO-AND-A-HALF MONTHS AFTER HIS CLASSIC GLORY BUT KEIDRAGON caused an upset in a thrilling three-way photo finish.

The Canadian bred Keidragon (Goldencents) was coming off a front-running course and distance win by eleven-lengths at Class 3 level and as it turned out he was the forgotten horse in the race landing the prize at odds of 32.2. Hwang Geum Eo Jang, as he did in the Derby, attempted to lead throughout but after fending off Keidragon for most of the home straight was caught in the final 50M whilst 29.5 chance Mustang Power came from the clouds to almost claim the prize. Keidragon scored by a nose over Mustang Power with a further nose back to the 2.0 favourite Hwang Geum Eo Jang. The other favourites were Tanseongui Banseok, 6.1, who was 4th whilst the other three-year-old General Wind, 3.5, attacked Hwang Geum Eo Jang for the lead and they set up a fast pace and the former used too much petrol and dropped out to be 10th of the eleven runners.

Whilst the two three-year-olds at the top of the market in the main race of the day were beaten the three favourites in Race 10 (1400M Class 3) were all classic aged horses and 6.7 third choice BEST PITCH (By My Standards) absolutely stormed away in the home straight coming from the second half of the field to win by six-lengths. Jazz Purple, 2.6 favourite, fought back in the closing stages for 2nd whilst Maeum Hana, 4.0 second favourite, who was looking for a quintet of consecutive wins looked the winner when dashing to the lead early in the straight before his run came to an end with a furlong to go and he weakened for 4th.

South American riders were on the board with Luis Quiroz completing back-to-back victories on board HYEUKMUSANG (Race Day) in Race 8 (1700M Class 4), who downed 2.2 favourite Flying Honor in the closing strides, whilst Ruan Maia rode two impressive winners in the shape of MIGHTY SHINE (Shackleford) in Race 4 (1400M Class 5), who was the 2.0 favourite which scored by ten-lengths, and EVERY TIME in Race 7 (1200M Class 4), who completed back-to-back victories as a 1.3 favourite by a very soft three-lengths from the front.

BEST SECRET (Concord Point) was another wide margin front-running winner in Race 6 (1200M Class 5) scoring by nine-lengths as a 1.5 favourite whilst 2.9 favourite PURPLE KOREA (To Honor And Serve) also led throughout when winning Race 5 (1300M Class 5) over co-favourites in juvenile Road To Champion, 4.7, Beat Code, 4.5, and Savers, 5.7.

BREEDO GALAXY (Revolutionary) broke his maiden in Race 2 (1300M Class 6) as a 1.6 favourite under Kozzi Asano whilst 2.4 second choice MAHO (Russian Revolution) led throughout to win Race 1 (1000M Class 4) over 1.8 favourite Mighty Hunky. Maho was the first Australian bred of the year to win one of the foreign bred maiden events for young horses instead of an American bred.

ON FRIDAY AT BUSAN RACE 7 WAS THE MAIN EVENT AS AN 1800M CLASS 3 AND IT SPRANG A SURPRISE WITH THE BART RICE TRAINED GUKDAE STAR landing the day at odds of 27.0.

Gukdae Star (Cowboy Cal) was returning to Class 3 grade after finishing 5th and 3rd at his previous two runs at Class 4 and came from near the tail on the rail to defeat 1.4 favourite Breedo Sol who had been impressive over the course and distance at the beginning of May before placing in the Minister’s Cup (KOR-G2) up at Seoul. The other favourites were 8.4 second choice Hey Brother who up in trip dropped out to finish 7th after being close to the pace whilst 8.1 second favourite Winners Rookie, a full sister to Winner’s Man, was always out the back.

Lee Sung-jae was the winning jockey on Gukdae Star and he was completing a double on the card after the Thomas Gillespie trained ONLY FOR ME (King Socks) led throughout to win Race 1 (1000M Class 6) by two-lengths at odds of 24.7 over the 1.1 favourite Victory Time.

Bart Rice was also completing a double after his talented three-year-old colt SUPER AERO (Mischieviously) resumed with a victory in Race 6 (1200M Class 4) under Masa Tanaka. Super Aero could have very easily won the Breeders’ Cup Rookie (KOR-G2) last season however in a bobbing finish the bob of the head did not go his way. He missed the Triple Crown races earlier in the season due to a cannon bone injury in February but bounced back in good style and going on the way he ran and got to the line he will improve markedly up in trip. Super Aero was the 2.1 favourite, and the favourites bookended the result with Lightning Force, 8.0, and the previously unbeaten Boryeonguikwaesok, 3.4, finishing 10th and 11th in the field of eleven.

An Woo-sung had a training double on the day with 3.8 second choice O.K. BABY (Old Fashioned) accounting for Calm Fast and 2.7 favourite Aegis Cheonma in Race 5 (1200M Class 5) before FLYING MENACE (Cowboy Cal) won the concluding Race 8 (1400M Class 4) over 1.7 favourite Gangseo Trend.

Moon Hyeon-cheol also had multiple success to the surprise of noone with American bred debutante SUPEX WORLD (Army Mule) a very impressive nine-length winner of Race 2 (1000M Class 4) in fast time at odds of 1.3 under Franco da Silva before BEST TIGER (To Honor And Serve) followed up sixtyfive minutes later in Race 3 (1400M Class 6) with success by five-lengths as the 3.0 favourite.

Kim Hye-sun also had success with SEOGWI CREST (Save The World) landing 2/1 favouritism in Race 4 (1600M Class 5) by ten-lengths under Lee Dong-ha.

There is no racing in Korea next weekend. Racing returns at Busan on Friday August 7.