Top local rider Howard Cheng Yue-tin's timing was perfect yesterday, landing a treble to celebrate his brand-new partnership with the world champion sprinter Sacred Kingdom.
It was Cheng's fourth treble, but capped a week when Cheng was only informed late last week that he would be the surprise replacement for Gerald Mosse when Sacred Kingdom tackles the Group Two Gome Cup (1,200m) on May 1, and he was understandably delighted.
'It's a great privilege - a real chance for me to win big races,' Cheng said after sweetening his weekend further with Super Plus and Shangdong General for Me Tsui Yu-sak and Lu Yue for Dennis Yip Chor-hong. 'I've never won a Group Two race so Sacred Kingdom will make history for me if he wins his next race but, of course, I want to win Group Ones on him when the chance comes.'
Cheng said Super Plus was just learning about racing after two starts but knew enough to kick again and win by a neck after Bejeweled came to beat him late in the second event over 1,000m, and Tsui has his eye on the three-year-old's future.
'He's smart but he's still quite young and immature so he will have a break now,' Tsui said. 'He's not as strong as he needs to be and I've been having trouble keeping condition on him.'
Tsui and Cheng completed a race-to-race double 30 minutes later when Shangdong General stormed to victory in the Harlech Handicap (1,200m) on the all-weather track, the fourth win from 14 outings for Shangdong General, but he, too, has a bit of work ahead to get the game right.
