There were more than a few groans of anguish when Irish import High Sky just failed to deliver on his debut in Hong Kong 10 days ago, but trainer Ricky P. F. Yiu has wasted no time in backing him up.
High Sky contests a fairly hot feature event in the Indian Recreation Club Cup at Happy Valley tonight where there is only a small field of eight but it is not a race without considerable interest.
It is unlikely that High Sky will start favourite and it is not advisable to take short odds about the horse, even though he has undoubted quality and cost connections plenty.
On his debut at Sha Tin, High Sky was being hailed the winner at the 200-metre mark when he surged forward under Robbie Fradd looking as if he was definitely going to make his first appearance a triumphant one.
But champion jockey Basil Marcus, no mean man in a finish, had other ideas and conjured up a fighting final effort from William's Surpass to prevail by the minimum margin.
High Sky went off at 8-1 and there were plenty of takers as his work had been good and his record before export stood up to careful scrutiny.