Rookie trainer Benno Yung Tin-pang continued his stellar recent run at Sha Tin, racking up the first treble of his short career to go with consecutive doubles last week.
Yung had a quiet start to the season with one winner from the first 20 meetings, and was often left languishing in the shadow of fellow freshman Chris So Wai-yin, who made a flying start. But he has come into his own at the last four meetings with nine winners from his last 16 runners.
Perhaps the most important winner of his treble was World City, who became the trainer's first unraced winner when he lunged late for Eddy Lai Wai-ming to win the Luk Wu Handicap, a Class Four over 1,000m. And Yung was quick to pay tribute to the horse's owner Justin Yue Kwok-hung, who raced the first Hong Kong Bowl winner Winning Partners in the same colours, for his unequivocal support.
"I've known the owner, Mr Yue, for a long time, almost 30 years, from the time I was a jockey," Yung said. "Once he knew I had a licence, he bought the horse from New Zealand and gave the horse straight to me. I wanted to express my sincere thanks to him, and the only way to show my appreciation was to win for him."
World City, a son of prolific dirt stallion Elusive City, may eventually be headed for the all-weather track at Sha Tin, but for now, Yung plans to keep him to the 1,000m down the straight.
"At the moment the straight course is his go," Yung said, "Especially while he is still so immature and such a big and gross horse. Later on, once he gets more mature, we can step him up in distance and who knows, he's bred to go well on the all-weather track."
"He's still very green and he still has plenty of growing to do, but he'll be a nice horse with time."
A race earlier, Kowloon East King led all the way under Zac Purton to win for the first time at his 19th start in the Wong Shek Handicap, a Class Five over 1,200m.
Last start at Happy Valley, Kowloon East King was pulled up and eased out of the race by Lai who told stewards he thought the horse may have been amiss, but Yung revealed the horse pulled up fine after the race. "There was nothing wrong with him after his last start," Yung said. "He didn't travel properly because he was scared when he was surrounded by horses, so I put the blinkers on when he had to trial again, they seemed to work well for him so I put them on again today."
"He doesn't have any dash, he's very much a one-paced horse who relished being out in front today. Zac rode him perfectly."
Later on the card, Umberto Rispoli produced almost a carbon copy of Purton's earlier ride to win the Pak Tam Au Handicap, a Class Four over 1,200m, on Star of Bond, although Yung explained it was another ride which was to prove the Italian's inspiration.
"I told Umberto to ride this horse exactly the same way he rode Precision King last week - get across to lead, but then slow them up as they came to the turn. Once again, he did it perfectly," Yung said.
"He's quite a nervous horse, he had stomach ulcers and he was quite skinny when he came to me, so I've taken my time to get him to the track."
Yung, who was assistant trainer to John Size for more than a decade, sounded much like his former mentor when describing the reason for his recent hot run of form.
"There's no secret at all, it's all about patience and time, my horses needed it early in the season. Hopefully, now we can build on it further."
