DON'T give up on David Oughton's Highland Laddie, who was all the rage for the final event at Sha Tin yesterday on the strength of some useful form as a griffin last season.
He was fresh and sweated up a bit prior to his reappearance yesterday and then ran as if he would improve significantly for the outing.
He was in the running 300 metres out before lack of hard racing told and he could only stay on at one pace to finish fourth, five lengths behind winner Top News.
Another promising horse was unearthed from the Wong Tang-ping stable when Unmasked put in a much-improved performance in the seventh race won by Oughton's Face The Odds from Bruce Hutchison's Ka Fook.
Unmasked finished full of running and is now ready to take a hand in a similar Class Three event.
The American-bred Ka Fook understandably ran out of fitness in the last 50 metres, having looked the winner with 200 metres to go.