ENGLISH Club jockey Michael Hills savoured his first taste of victory at Happy Valley yesterday when 31-1 bolter Harmony Prince came with a barn-storming run to lift the Class Four sixth event.
Hills, whose only other success in Hong Kong was aboard First Island in the 1996 International Cup at Sha Tin for Newmarket handler Geoff Wragg, will be hoping yesterday's victory is the opening shot of a lucrative three-month stint.
Trainer Wong Siu-tan, one of the more enthusiastic supporters of the Club Jockeys, had heaped work into the three-year-old Australian-bred and he reaped the rewards as Harmony Prince finished far too strongly for favourite Quick Commander (3.2-1), who dived late to hold Chief's Fortune out of the quinella spot.
On Fire was left with too much work to do and he battled on fairly for fourth under Steven King, who was having his first day back from a fractured collarbone.
Harmony Prince had shaped promisingly on his griffin debut back in February when a fast-finishing fourth behind Lord Of Warriors.
He had three more runs before Wong turned him out for the summer and he has come back a bigger and more professional galloper. There are more wins in store for this impressive son of Our Poetic Prince and he can be followed out of what was a thin contest.