Top trainers John Size and John Moore face off with half the field in today's Chan Trophy (1,600m) at Sha Tin and lightly weighted Supreme Knight has the draw and tactical speed to claim the day for Moore.
Moore holds the strength in the race, with Military Attack (Douglas Whyte) and Supreme Knight (Tim Clark), but his most serious dangers look to be the Size-trained trio of Aomen (Willie Pike), Hot Shot and Delta Hedge. And Tony Cruz adds some spice with California Dude (Matthew Chadwick).
Topweight Military Attack has come through a Derby campaign with credit, finishing a solid sixth in the classic before his second to Helene Spirit at Happy Valley last start.
But, with what he has shown, he has earned the stopper of 133 pounds coming back into Class Two and a 16-pound weight difference with Supreme Knight might even swing things the way of the lesser-rated stablemate.
Supreme Knight has never had any pretensions to Derbies or the top grades, but he has proved to be a solid performer, making his way up through the grades. Four wins and five placings from 17 starts is a sound form line.
The gelding missed the first half of this season after having suspensory ligament problems in September, but that should stand him in good stead as a horse with some running left in him at this end of the term.
After a couple of moderate runs as he gained fitness, Supreme Knight caught the eye behind Keen Wongchoy two starts ago, then looked to make hard work of it when he scraped home as favourite last time out over 1,400m in Class Three.