PREPARING quality gallopers takes a modicum of skill - it's the ordinary animals that truly test a trainer's effectiveness. That point was eloquently hammered home by former South African champion Tony Millard when he collected the first double of a fledgling local career with the only two horses he saddled at yesterday's Happy Valley meeting. Kintanto (16-1) and Comedy (8.5-1) were both maidens after more than a dozen local starts but Millard had them at their peak for their low-grade engagements. Kintanto is a good example of Millard's ability to lift an ordinary conveyance. He acquired the Kinjite gelding from excellent local trainer Francis Lui and had poured plenty of work into the five-year-old in the weeks leading up to his seasonal debut. It doesn't take much to win a Class Six, 1,800-metre test but Millard had him ready and local ace Eddie Lai did the rest. Comedy was a pick-up from the now-defunct Patrick Biancone stable and doubled his career earnings in one fell swoop. Millard may have found the key to this troublesome Irish-bred whose only other top-three finish came when second at his first start for Millard over the Sha Tin mile early last month. Elsewhere, Sheer Madness (9.5-1) gave David Hill a welcome success when Freddie Sanchez arrived just in time to snatch the Class Three mile event from brave front-runner Born Dragon (15-1) and Wendyll Woods. This was only the second win of the campaign for the English mentor who was forced to wait a full five minutes for the judge's verdict. 'They [the jockeys] both thought they'd won it but I was relieved to see his number go into the frame. There's been a few tight ones go against us,' said Hill. 'He [Sheer Madness] is good around the Valley, so we thought we were in with a shout.' Tim Pratt