International sale graduate Dynamic Fun made it three on end last night to loom as a potential Hong Kong Derby prospect but neither his trainer nor his jockey were talking him up.
Only a month ago, some in Hong Kong racing wanted to suggest that champion trainer John Size's abilities did not extend to developing a sales horse from scratch. Dynamic Fun's winning run has put paid to that theory but Size was not ruling the Derby in or out after last night's 1.75 lengths win.
'I suppose you can't rule out those sorts of races but he has won a Class Two tonight off a rating of 79 - he'll need to go considerably higher to get into the Derby let alone be a chance,' Size said. 'Still, we'll see how he's racing when the time comes.'
In adding his first win at Happy Valley to his earlier victories on the dirt and then over 1,800 metres on the Sha Tin turf, Dynamic Fun has collected three distinctly different successes but in much the same way.
'I let him run along again in front,' jockey Shane Dye said. 'But I don't think there was anything left tonight as there was in the other two wins. He has kept improving to do what he has done but he was spent at the finish this time.'
Ricky Yiu Poon-fie, on the other hand, was more excited about his young sprinter Danhero's third straight win than he was about the first or second. 'Three in a row and that was the most impressive,' Yiu said after Glyn Schofield piloted the gelding to victory in the seventh. 'With the pace on there, he showed a great turn of foot tonight.'
Once again it was the Happy Valley 1,000-metre course for Danhero and Yiu said he was growing less committed to changing that. 'I had planned to step him out over a bit longer and I'm sure he will run a strong 1,200 metres. Actually, he ran 1,200 metres last season when he wasn't in the form he's in now,' Yiu said. 'But I don't know - if we can keep turning up for 1,000 metres here and getting the winner's cheque, why change? The way he won tonight, we could be looking at four in a row.'