If revenge is indeed a dish best served cold, then trainer David Ferraris won't have minded the extra 20 minutes he had to wait on top of the full 12 months connections of Chater Mikado had already held out for the gelding's first local win in the Ap Lei Chau Handicap (1,200m).
The year of waiting can be put down to troublesome hoof injuries which hampered Chater Mikado (Brett Prebble) throughout last season, but the extra 20 minutes came courtesy of Darren Beadman's protest on runner-up Kyara, a horse formerly trained by Ferraris.
When the Hong Kong Cricket Club Syndicate-owned Chater Mikado did enough on the line to hold out the late finish of the plunge horse Kyara - backed from 16-1 down to 5-1 first-up for the season - there was a greater gleam of satisfaction than usual in Ferraris' eye as he had trained Kyara in his early races before the horse's owner moved his stock across to Moore during last season.
'I know this horse - he used to get his head up in the air like that when I trained him,' Ferraris reportedly gave in evidence as stewards considered the objection by Beadman over the neck margin.
With Chater Mikado pouncing on the front at the 250m, he rolled out slightly and Kyara was hampered in getting to his outside and stewards gave the objection a serious consideration before ruling in favour of the first past the post.
Perhaps the added tension made the win even sweeter for Ferraris, but the South African was more intent on declaring that it won't be the last win for the five-year-old, now that he has thrown off his foot issues.
'He was plagued by quarter crack problems all last season,' Ferraris said. 'I'd get him fit and ready to run well and it would split open again. It wouldn't go away. The encouraging thing was that he kept running good races even with this problem so I knew he would be a different horse once he got over it.'