Electronic Unicorn left a match race fizzing and his trainer John Size with a familiar dilemma as he returned to his very best and scorched away with the Group One Stewards' Cup at Sha Tin yesterday.
The Unicorn settled back from his wide gate then produced his dazzling acceleration to loop the field on the circle under Robbie Fradd and surge away from stablemate Dr More, to give Size the feature quinella and part of a treble for the meeting.
In doing so, he made amends for what appeared an unlucky second in the Hong Kong Mile for the second year running, winning the first leg of Hong Kong's Triple Crown by almost four lengths - and opening up the debate whether he should run in the Hong Kong Gold Cup (2,000 metres) in March.
'That was an electrifying display,' said Size. 'It's great to see him back to that sort of winning form. The tempo of the race gave him the opportunity to show his sprint, to show just what he can do and he didn't let anyone down. He took the chance.'
But the thorny question of the Gold Cup will remain just a question for the time being, despite the ease of the win.
Last season, connections elected to tackle the extra distance of the Gold Cup and were left lamenting when Electronic Unicorn failed in a truly-run affair and finished down the course, but the subject won't go away after yesterday's victory.
