Joyful Winner II might not make the heights reached by his former namesake, but the John Moore-trained four-year-old can make a local breakthrough in tonight's Police Cup (1,650m) at Happy Valley.
The first Joyful Winner was a star for the same ownership under Moore's guidance, including two Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup wins, but the current one has a long way to go to anything like that level of form.
Fortunately, he faces just an average Class Three field and put the writing on the wall when he failed to overhaul Upgrading at the same track last time.
After an even 1,200m run first-up at Sha Tin, Joyful Winner II (Darren Beadman) was a fitter and better-suited combatant stepping up to the extended Valley mile.
He rattled home from midfield to go down by a half length and it is reasonable to expect him to have advanced again for that outing and to be peaking for this race.
Joyful Winner II had worthwhile if not outstanding form from eight starts in England as a two- and three-year-old, looking to improve with maturity last year and winning over 1,600m at Newmarket.
He shapes like a horse still with a little upside to him as he matures fully and he won't have to progress much on his last-start effort for Moore to be holding the cup.