John Moore might have been forgiven had he led in Class One winner Sunny King with mixed feelings but he was far from disheartened, despite the defeat of his expensive Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby hopeful Irian.
The handsome German-bred colt was all the buzz on his first appearance and started a $28 favourite before having to settle for fifth to stablemate Sunny King (Weichong Marwing), but neither Moore nor jockey Darren Beadman were disappointed.
'He looked a bit pretty in the paddock today being first time out here and I don't think anyone would have expected him to be totally hard fit first-up like that. He was fit enough to win if the race broke for him, but the Derby is his mission and there's plenty of improvement left,' Moore said.
'That was a very tough race to tackle first-up as those horses are fit genuine Class One horses so it would have been a good effort to win. But the way he closed off the race told me that Irian is right on target. He isn't like Collection, who goes through his gears very quickly. Irian takes more winding up but I was happy with his finishing section and we'll know more after the Derby Trial next time.'
The Jockey Club recorded Irian as closing his race off in 22.11 seconds over the last 400m - somewhat faster than Beauty Flash did in the Classic Mile, but the latter carried more weight. Beadman said Irian hit a flat spot at the 400m when the leaders zoomed after what had been a slow-tempo race, but he was picking them up again on the line.
'He's never raced below a mile before so 1,400m was always going to be a test and when he drew the outside gate he was going to have to give a start but there was nothing wrong with that run against in-form fit horses,' he said.