As Zac Purton fired off four winners, karaoke-loving trainer Dennis Yip Chor-hong played the fat lady and sang but a careless riding suspension and a natural aversion to jinxing himself prevented the jockey from making it a duet.
Golden Deer won early, then Yip provided the next two of Purton's quadrella - Demokles and Brilliant Shine - and he was the first to call the jockeys' championship all over after the Australian survived a protest and made it four with Aerovelocity in the Sha Tin Vase.
"Zac's home," said Yip, who knows all about titles after scoring his trainers' championship last year in the final race of the season.
Purton would have none of that and a two-day ban for the careless riding on Aerovelocity that brought an unsuccessful protest from fourth-placed Smart Volatility was a reminder that things can change quickly.
"There's a lot can happen between now and the end of the season," said Purton, who now enjoys a 17-win buffer over Joao Moreira with only 114 races remaining. "Some of my trainers who have already had good seasons are drying up, some of my others are just chipping away. It isn't over. This was a key day, but they're all key days."
But he'll have a hard time convincing anyone else of that, with Moreira winless yesterday and even the careless riding ban will be offset by the Brazilian going to Japan to ride Glorious Days in the Yasuda Kinen and missing a day himself.
Paul O'Sullivan wasn't there to see Aerovelocity's big moment, making it five on end and rising to black type grade to do it, with the trainer in New Zealand for the funeral of his sister, Lisa.
Aerovelocity has been one of the season's big finds and toughed it out once again in a tight finish, wobbling in sharply in the final 100m to just prevail over Divine Ten, Golden Harvest and Smart Volatility.
As the winner rolled in and Divine Ten shifted out slightly, Smart Volatility was the meat in the sandwich but stewards weren't comfortable that the grey was going to win the race when it happened.
"Paul had given him the break to freshen him up for this but it might have worked against him in the last bit," Purton said. "He normally lays in but he was much worse today and was out on his feet the last 150m. But once he has horses next to him he is really brave, really fights, and that got him across the line."
Purton said the plan was to run Aerovelocity once more this term, stepping up in trip.
"Funny thing, he's always looked like 1,400m is his distance but Paul has kept him at 1,200m because he kept winning at it," he said. "Next time, he goes to 1,400m, so we'll see how he handles that."
Purton said the double for Yip, one of his biggest supporters, was important.
"Dennis started the season slowly but if he can keep getting winners at this end of the season it is going to really be a help for me," he said.
