Winners were grinners at Happy Valley midweek and the winners constituted most the horses to follow from the night.
Happy Homing, with 33 starts for one win before Wednesday, might seem the kind of "bob up" Class Fiver happily ignored thereafter, but the five-year-old has found a new engine since moving to Francis Lui Kin-wai.
Zac Purton has been part of the transformation too, as the champion jockey has ridden Happy Homing lately for the best two runs of the gelding's career. Both were from wide draws and Purton had no option but to take hold, let him rest then run on.
That looks key and Happy Homing produced sensational finishing sections each time, with no fluke about his final split in 22.40 seconds on Wednesday and Class Four holds no fears for him ridden this way.
Stag Knight turned his form upside down in the third, but had had excuses at most of his six defeats, and the Stag Knight we saw this time is one most expected to turn up much earlier. His trials made him hot favourite at his first two starts, terrific efforts without luck, but hard runs that looked to flatten him for the rest of that first campaign.
A troubled run and heart irregularity first-up added to his question marks, but Joao Moreira got him the right, smooth passage on Wednesday and he won impressively.
Now he has broken through, Stag Knight stays in Class Four next time and is fully capable of following up again and taking himself successfully into Class Three.
The other winner who impressed was Happy Rocky, and he should progress through Class Four into the next grade too. His race was not run to suit back markers, but Happy Rocky turned in real acceleration with a 22.59 seconds final sectional and the further the race went late, the greater his margin - a good sign.
Employed over shorter trips until Wednesday, his breeding says Happy Rocky should run extreme distances he won't ever see here but if he improves as much going beyond 1,650m as he did going up to the mile, he will win his share of races.
