KUALA LUMOUR:  Feb 26, 2023

A recent change of trainer seems to have benefited CHINESE TEA tremendously as the half-brother to champion sprinter AWESOME STORM sought to rebuild his stop-start career.

The Australian gelding by Magnus promised so much at the start of his career. He finished second in his racing debut in late 2019 but it took him eight months before he spotted silk again. He promptly won that but was out of action for another seven months.

That did not prevent CHINESE TEA from scoring back-to-back wins in March 2021 to complete a hattrick.

Since then, his runs have been well spaced-out. He managed to pick up one more win in Class 3 in March last year which earned him a crack at the Tunku Gold Cup (1200m).

CHINESE TEA was well beaten in the Cup and after one more run for a second, he was spelled again for seven months before trainer Frank Maynard took over the gelding.

Under Maynard, he has now raced four times since the middle of December for two placings before his impressive win in the Metro A event over 1100m at Sungei Besi here today.

Ridden by bang-in-form apprentice Nuqman Faris Rozi for the first time, CHINESE TEA gave the best performance of his career thus far when he accounted for some big names including the odds-on favourite AWESOME STORM, LONELY BOY and MOON FACE in the set-weight race.

MOON FACE set the pace and CHINESE TEA joined him on settling down and these two led the rest into the straight.

MOON FACE kicked away from CHINESE TEA at the top of the straight and was a clear leader at the 300m. But CHINESE TEA was winding up for a big effort which promptly came after the 200m.

CHINESE TEA swept past the leader with some ease 100m out to win by 1 3/4 lengths from LONELY BOY. AWESOME STORM finished third after having every chance in the race.

"It was my plan B," said Nuqman who won three races here yesterday and had another hattrick today, his other winners being TOP GUN, another half-brother to CHINESE TEA, and GOLDEN CHAMP.

"My instructions were to sit third or fourth behind the pace because there was plenty of speed horses in the race. But after jumping, my horse was very keen so I allowed him to go the front.

"Luckily, he began to relax once in front and he found a second gear when he came into the straight. He finished very well."

"The horse has really come on," said Maynard. "He's got to learn to relax a bit more and should be a high class horse but I think he is heading that way.

"It's a great effort as he went pretty hard early and finished off very strong. He's got a lot of potential but if we can resurrect a couple of things with him, he will come back to us a better horse.

"I was confident today. He's sound and everything's good about him. He did what I thought he could do. I might try a different gear to get him to relax in future."