DEFENDING champion John Moore moved back into the lead in the trainers' championship with a last-gasp success at Happy Valley's equitrack meeting last night.
Moore, his stable struggling to shake off the effects of 'flu virus, moved one clear of the chasing Patrick Biancone, Derek Cruz, Lawrie Fownes and Peter Ng Bik-kuen when his Kwacha scraped home by the shortest of short heads from Solar Century in the final event.
Winning jockey Darren Beadman said: ''I thought we were beaten so it was great when the result came up.
''Every little helps as we have been struggling a bit recently, with Happy Money's win here and Fastabob's success at Sha Tin the only two bright spots which readily spring to mind.'' The meeting generally had little to recommend it but for the runs of a few horses who should go close to winning in the future.
Ng's Orchestra looked the night's most unlucky runner. He normally jumps and leads but he was surprisingly restrained in the third event despite it being over the minimum equitrack sprint of 1,030 metres where to lead is so often to win.
He then ran wide into the straight but made a lot of ground to fail by only three-quarters of a length to peg back Peter Tse Yan-sid's odds-on winner Smart Runner.
Tse, saddling only his fourth winner of the season, has done well with Smart Runner.
