Karis Teetan may not have had a season to match the antics of his breakout term last year, but the Mauritian jockey was at his brilliant best on Sunday to score a double and continue celebrations after a milestone week.

A natural lightweight rider, Teetan - who turned 25 last Wednesday - has taken advantage of the absence of fellow featherweight and runaway jockeys' championship leader Joao Moreira at the last two meetings to make it a memorable birthday.

He scored early in the day on Chris So Wai-yin's Modern Tsar at big odds before making amends with punters on heavily backed Top Act in the Hong Kong University Alumni Association Challenge Cup.

Tony Millard-trained Top Act's win in the Class Two feature was the four-year-old's fifth win of the season, just the third horse to achieve the feat this term, as he thrived under just 114 pounds to hold off the luckless Dynamism.

Millard was happy to see the horse back in winning form, but was left to rue missed opportunities after the son of O'Reilly failed to make the BMW Hong Kong Derby field in March.

"He was our leading Derby hope, and he was progressing the right way but he was given a shocker of a ride at Happy Valley in early February and finished last," Millard said.

"We were forced back to the trials, which is fair enough, but it meant that we simply ran out of time with him and had to be content with winning the Class Three over 1,800m on Derby day.

He's a decent horse and missing the Derby may prove a blessing, because I think he'll be even better as a five-year-old next season
Karis Teetan on Top Act

"It was a good effort today, he was down in the weights but for him to enter after almost three months off and quicken like that, not many horses can do that.

"We'll take him to the Happy Valley Vase next week and that should prove a good race for him."

Teetan acknowledged the horse, who was green-lamped before starting a 3.4 second favourite, had improved in leaps and bounds since he last was on his back last year.

"He's a decent horse and missing the Derby may prove a blessing, because I think he'll be even better as a five-year-old next season," he said.

"I rode him last season at a few of his early starts and he felt like a nice horse but he was clearly still learning.

"I haven't had the chance to get back on him until now, and with the light weight, Tony asked me if I would ride him. He let me trial him and he went terrific, so I had quite a bit of confidence.

"It all went pretty much to plan in the race. We parked behind the leader, the gap appeared at the top of the straight, he sprinted well and under the light weight he just kept going."

Earlier, Modern Tsar defied his 52-1 quote to blouse his rivals after striking interference at the top of the straight, and Teetan celebrated as though he'd ridden American Pharoah to victory in the Belmont Stakes hours earlier.

"I did give a big salute," Teetan said with a grin. "I was just so happy that Chris had been proven right.

"When I took the ride, Chris said, 'Please ride this horse, he's a big chance.' So I looked at his form and thought, surely not, but Chris said not to worry about how his form reads. He has been very unlucky - he's had wide draws, he couldn't get a clear run or whatever - so I took the ride because Chris was so confident he could win. And he was right."

So said he was confident after he lined up Moreira to ride, but when the Brazilian was suspended, he was happy to turn to Teetan.

"I had Joao booked, but as soon as he was suspended he called to say he couldn't take the ride. And so I went for Karis, because I wanted the best lightweight rider available."

Teetan now sits on 27 wins, a sizeable total which places him seventh on the championship ladder but well short of the 50 winners he produced in his first term.

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