Umberto Rispoli is intent on maintaining the momentum gained late in last season's successful short-term stint, and got the ball rolling for this term last night with a double at Happy Valley - earning praise for his power in a close finish.
Rispoli rode for two months last season, but had to wait until the final two weeks of his stay to grab his six winners. This time the Italian is in town for five months, and it took until his fifth meeting to break through - saluting on Tony Millard's Medic Champion and Pure Force for Peter Ng Bik-kuen.
"I want to keep the same confidence I gained the last time I was here," Rispoli said.
"Last time the owners and trainers didn't have the confidence in me early, and I wasn't getting on the better horses. This time I want to catch some good rides, and perhaps find a nice Derby horse. I am now getting the support from different trainers, and that is important. Before I left last season, people were asking why I didn't extend my contract, but I had already committed to France and had to go.
"Here you have to improve all the time, but you also need the good horses - one day you can be on top here, and the next they can drop you."
Millard said Rispoli was one of the strongest riders he had seen in a finish.
"That horse was headed clearly there, but he picked him up and got him home," Millard said.
"He is a very strong boy and I don't think there's too many that could beat him in a close finish." Medic Champion was backing up from a third over the same course and distance a week ago, convincing Millard to back the 1,200-plus-pound beast up seven days later.
"He had been a bit fat, but I could see him coming back into form last week, so we decided to back him up," the trainer said.
Millard later got a double of his own when Genuine Leader (Zac Purton) did the right thing as odds-on pop in the Japan Racing Association Trophy.
"He won easier than I expected him too," Millard said.
"That was impressive enough, but we will just go through the grades with him, and he will have to improve again to win in Class Two."
Pure Force was part of a double for Ng, who wasn't at the meeting, but later got his ninth win of the season when Gold Racer scored - winning jockey Howard Cheng Yue-tin getting two days for his effort.
Gary Ng Tik-keung's Vintage Hussler caught a break at the start when the horse drawn inside him, Secret Of Winning, was slow away and allowed Douglas Whyte to cross to the rails and then dictate from in front. "He is a horse that cannot have pressure on him, so we were lucky when that horse couldn't push inside of us," Ng said.
"This is his best distance, 1,000m, and even though he will be back in Class Three now, I think he will be a chance with a light weight."
Super Strike has now won three times over 2,200m, but it took a vigorous ride from Tye Angland to get the Andreas Schutz-trained six-year-old to the line.
"Drawing three helped him get the right spot in the run, and Tye did the right thing to get him to the outside at the 400m, that move was the key to the victory," Schutz said. A move to blinkers and good fortune of drawing gate one made the difference for Sean Woods-trained stayer Hear The Roar - he was pushed into a more prominent position by Weichong Marwing and got the perfect box-seat run.
"The blinkers obviously worked, but he got all the favours," Woods said after his eighth winner for the term.
"We just thought he was giving up a bit easily, thinking his job was done with 200m to go in his races - so we went to the blinkers. I think this horse is even better at Sha Tin, where he can settle, get out in the clear and wind up down the long straight."
