In-form 24-year-old Vincent Ho Chak-yiu continued his tremendous start to the season with a double, including a meeting-ending win on exciting sprint prospect Domineer for former boss Caspar Fownes at Sha Tin on Wednesday night.
While Fownes is having a great start to the term - his 11-win haul is six more than his nearest rival - Ho finds himself in exclusive company in the top five of the jockeys' championship after eight meetings.
Ho has eight wins and trails just the "Big Three" of Joao Moreira, Douglas Whyte and Zac Purton after an all-the-way victory on Domineer, a European-bred four-year-old with a record of three from 12.
"I'm not surprised Vincent is doing so well," Fownes said. "I've always said I think the world of him. It's nice to see other trainers giving him support, too. I'm happy to put him on anything, as he rides to instructions, but he uses his head now, too."
Gerald Mosse made his usual late start to the term after the completion of the European summer majors, and guided Cultural City to a breakthrough dirt win to bring up a double.
The Frenchman has often been criticised for sitting three wide on runners - and he raced even wider on Cultural City on the forgiving all-weather track, with the horse breaking through for the first time in 22 local starts despite a torrid run facing the breeze. The victory giving an absent trainer Chris So Wai-yin his first success of the season.
Mosse's first winner was in the previous race, when stable transfer Triumphant Dragon snapped his winless run in a Class Five, giving Manfred Man Ka-leung a "cellar grade" double, after Mighty Gains (Ho) won for the first time in 12 starts.
Whyte also had a riding double, leap-frogging arch-rival Purton into second place in the jockeys' championship.
The "Durban Demon" had wins on Hella Hedge and Confucius Elite taking him to nine wins from the first eight meetings.
Trainer Francis Lui Kin-wai said Hella Hedge was open to further improvement after he took advantage of a four-point drop into Class Four to win first-up.
"He took a while to acclimatise, he just needed time and I think he can win up in Class Three as well," Lui said.
Confucius Elite's handler, Sean Woods, said credit for the five-year-old's second win in three starts this season should go to the club's farriers who have held the gelding's feet together.
"He struggled last season with terrible quarter cracks," Woods said. "They've put some glue-on shoes on him and they've worked well."
Karis Teetan later notched his second win for the season when he was able to lead on the John Size-trained Sight Believer.
Sight Believer won both of his previous races at Happy Valley, but Size said he would not be rushing back there after it re-opens later this month following his horse's dirt display. "We've got all season to go there, and there might be some opportunities for him coming up," he said.
Stewards had a relatively quiet night, with Alex Lai Hoi-wing suspended for three days for careless riding on Indigo Way in race five.
Yesterday morning the Happy Valley course proper had its first test since the turf was relaid when Purton and Ho partnered a pair of Caspar Fownes-trained horses in a gallop around the iconic city circuit.
Happy Valley has been out of action since June, with major drainage works seeing two large section of the track ripped up.
Barrier trials will be held on Friday night ahead of the first meeting on October 19.
