Smith ends nine-year wait to score a winner at Happy Valley

'Now we've opened the door, we just have to keep on walking through it'

Jockey Wayne Smith reached back into the distant past to bring the present up to scratch as he rode his second Happy Valley winner last night - a mere nine years after the first. 'That's just marvellous,' the Irishman beamed after landing tough sprinter Grand Fighter for trainer Peter Ng Bik-kuen in the night's feature, the Hong Kong Country Club Challenge Cup, in a victory which gave Ng a double for the card and put a score on the board for Smith this season.

'It's great to ride for Peter again. I came here about nine years ago when I was an apprentice and I won a race here for him on a horse called Golden Luck, so it's fitting that I've won for him tonight.'

Smith had borne his losing rides with a determined smile before last night's success and was looking onward and upward after Grand Fighter scored. 'Now we've opened the door, we just have to keep on walking through it,' he laughed. 'What a good, tough horse that is. He likes to lead but with all the other pace in the race tonight that was impossible, so I had to ease up on him and ride him behind but he did a fine job.'

Ng had earlier scored with Namjong Treasure (Henry Tsang) in the second event, the three-year-old spearing to the lead despite his outside draw and never looking seriously threatened. 'He has some potential,' Ng said. 'My only worry before the race was the barrier but Henry did a good job on him to make sure he left the gates well. Once he got out of the gates, it would not have mattered who was on him, he was going to win the race.'

In the seventh, rookie trainer Casper Fownes notched up his third winner of the season but New Face (Anton Marcus) held a special place in that trio as his father, former Hong Kong trainer Lawrie, was at Happy Valley last night.

'I got in from Canada on Tuesday night and I was almost dizzy from jetlag by about race four,' said Lawrie Fownes. 'But it's worth it to be here for this. I'm so proud of how Casper has done. Three wins and eight seconds in the first seven meetings is a great achievement.'