Home sweet home was the message from Dashing Champion as Eric Legrix steered him to a powerhouse Craigengower Cricket Club Challenge Cup win at Happy Valley last night. Coming off a string of disappointments at Sha Tin, the three-year-old relished the return to the idiosyncratic Valley circuit to run boom youngster Amazing Victory into the ground and keep his past-the-post record at the track in perfect order. 'It's not a question of him not having the ability to win at Sha Tin, it's more a question of his maturity,' Legrix said after winning the night's feature. 'Here, Dashing Champion seems to have more focus. At Sha Tin, he travels too well and then when you ask him for a kick there isn't one.' Dashing Champion last ran at the Valley track in November, so trainer Peter Ng Bik-kuen took him to the course for a quiet trial last Saturday to jog his memory. 'I just gave him the lightest trial possible, I didn't ask him to do anything,' Legrix said. 'And the last few days on the track, Peter kept him fresh. Everything worked out perfectly.' Legrix rode a dashing race on the gelding from gate 11, surging from the start to cross and dominate from the front and never looked like being caught. It was Dashing Champion's second win from three starts around Happy Valley's 1,200-metres course, but he was also first past the post at his debut there last year before losing the race in the stewards' room. Shane Dye took the riding honours last night to level up with Douglas Whyte in the title race, striking three times to Whyte's lone win on Classa Win for Peter Ho. Dye and Whyte are now 12 wins clear of Gerald Mosse. Dye was at his best to score on John Size-trained Sir Octavius, Mr President for Lawrie Fownes and finished the night off with Snowstorm for Brian Kan Ping-chee. The treble took Dye to 47 wins for the season and it was his strength at the finish in each case which made all the difference. Sir Octavius is bred to be smart - his sire Octagonal and dam, Show Of Force, finished first and third respectively in the Group One 1995 AJC Sires Produce Stakes at Randwick - but Size believes he has some maturing to do yet. 'He had all the favours tonight to win by just half a length,' he said. 'At this stage, he doesn't seem to be quite strong enough to win on the bigger track at Sha Tin. He's been meeting a pretty good class of horse there and just finding them a bit strong.' Size expects Sir Octavius to produce his form at longer distances than last night's 1,200 metres but will wait until next season before he steps him up in trip. Most of the night went as planned for trainer Fownes, who brought home a double with Thunder Man (Mosse) and Mr President. 'They're both horses which have been trying their hearts out and it's nice to see them break through tonight,' he said. 'Mr President has been beaten in two very close photos this season but he hardly runs a bad race and he deserved that. So did his owner, Cheng Chung-wah, who has never been in a winning photo before tonight so he's over the moon. He had a nice horse with me last year in Royal Majesty, who broke down, but he replaced him with Maranello, who is having his first start on the weekend so hopefully this is a sign that his luck is in.' Thunder Man had been unlucky for Australian visiting jockey Corey Brown at the Chinese New Year meeting, but made amends in no uncertain terms last night. 'Corey apologised when he came back and said the horse should have won for sure at Sha Tin,' Fownes said. 'He got held up in the straight but he flew when he got out, but I think he showed even a bit more turn of foot tonight going up from the 1,400 metres to the 1,650 metres. This seems a nice distance for him and he will probably get a little further with time.' Like Dashing Winner, Ricky Yiu Poon-fie-trained Amo enjoyed his return to the Valley circuit to score his second win earlier in the night. 'He was back to his own type of class tonight and is probably turning into a specialist here,' Yiu said. 'He likes 1,200 metres, he likes this track and he has the temperament to pay his way.' And punters following the horses dropping down from Class Four to Class Five got all the awards in the opening event for the low-grade sprinters when Famous Brand (Eric Saint Martin) swooped down the outside to find his way back to the winner's circle. Famous Brand had looked disappointing in Class Four but as trainer Fancis Lui Kin-wai pointed out, the gap between the bottom two grades is wide. 'I think that Famous Brand is going to be one of those horses - too good for Class Five but he finds Class Four a little bit tough,' he said.
