With an unusually-light representation at Sha Tin this afternoon, John Moore will not have the ammunition to become Hong Kong's most prolific winning trainer just yet but in Noble Crusader he certainly has the firepower to take the day's feature in the Pok Oi Cup 1,400 metres.
With 840 career wins as a trainer, Moore is fast closing in on Brian Kan Ping-chee's record of 844 race victories but has just four runners today and will have to wait a little longer to claim that title.
However, the impressive young sprinter Noble Crusader (Christophe Soumillon) should move him one success closer by overcoming a wider gate in the second last event as he steps to 1,400m for the first time.
Noble Crusader has raced five times for three wins and a third but could well have remained unbeaten to now but for ill-luck in those two defeats.
He was desperately unlucky last season in his minor placing when trapped four and five wide throughout as an odds-on favourite, and he had a totally forgiveable failure first-up this season when the gelding knocked his head on the starting gates and literally followed the field around punch-drunk at the tail.
But Noble Crusader showed that to be an aberration on international day when Soumillon parked him up on the speed over 1,200 metres and the gelding drew clear impressively in fast time and that ability to sit handy and quicken should make him an ideal 1,400-metre horse.