Flying Colours has a habit of causing a boilover in the last race on a Wednesday night, the surprise was that this time it was on Sha Tin's all-weather circuit, as the 76-1 bolter continued the recent trend of longshots and led home a Derek Cruz-trained quinella.
Cruz's so-called 'second stringer' beat a host of surface specialists in the final event on the all-dirt card, including stablemate and runner-up Cerise Cherry.
It was the fourth time Flying Colours had scored in race eight of a midweek fixture this season, but the previous wins were at Happy Valley and this upset was the third time he has stung punters, with earlier efforts at 30-1 and 23-1.
'I actually tipped the quinella, but not in that order,' said Cruz, who said that an administrative error was the reason behind Howard Cheng Yue-tin replacing Flying Colours' regular rider Tye Angland, who rode the runner-up.
'I thought Cerise Cherry was the better choice, because he had form on the dirt, but this horse did come close to winning an all-weather race earlier in his career.
'Flying Colours is a bit of a Happy Valley specialist, but he has really done his job this season. Both horses are very consistent, Cerise Cherry might have some good dirt performances left in him too after he went sour for a while there.' Fresh off training a 161-1 winner last weekend, David Hall continued his late-season momentum with a double.
Hall's produced the longest-priced winner of the season with Gold Tartini on Sunday, but last night's victories were far more predictable - the consistency of Terrega and El Grande finally reaping first-placed cheques.