Rails-hugging rides aren't Gerald Mosse's forte but the Frenchman was at his daring best with a double on Yuan's Fortune and Spicy Siam and was predicting more wins for both.
Mosse, who usually favours a wider course on his mounts, brought the Me Tsui Yu-sak-trained Yuan's Fortune from near last in the Class Five opening event before a paint-scraping ride on Spicy Siam, who made it three in a row for Chris So Wai-yin.
All in all, Mosse only went around one horse combined in both wins - the weakening Lovely Panda in the Tin Kong Handicap, as Yuan's Fortune cast his "Happy Valley specialist" tag aside.
Yuan's Fortune had only raced at Sha Tin five times in 41 starts previously, all unplaced efforts.
He had competed once at the larger track late last season, and previous to that he hadn't raced at Sha Tin since May 2011.
Mosse, however, felt the seven-year-old's run pattern necessitated a change in thinking.
"I thought the horse was racing really well at Happy Valley but always coming too late when the race was all over," Mosse said.
"He has been racing very well. I told the trainer I thought he would be better at Sha Tin - it's got the long straight, you can wait with him and he has a great finish. I know he is a Class Five horse, but actually he gave me quite a good feeling today."
Spicy Siam has now delivered three of So's 18 winners in what has already been an impressive rookie season.
And the five-year-old, previously trained by Peter Ng Bik-kuen, might have more in store according to his trainer.
"This horse is still improving - I told the owner I had quite a bit of confidence with the light weight, he runs the 2,000m right out and was always going to get a good run. But it was a very good Gerald Mosse ride," So said.
Mosse used gate four beautifully to find the box seat in the Kwu Tung Handicap, and being close in running proved key as the race descended into a walk, Dicky Lui Cheuk-yin slowing the tempo down with sectionals of 26.2s and 26.7s in the middle stages on leader Namjong Turbo.
After taking the inside run, then Mosse had to hold off the challenge of the hard-finishing and unlucky Cartoon Fay Fay with Joao Moreira aboard.
Spicy Siam's two previous wins had been with Zac Purton and Tye Angland aboard, and Mosse is hoping owners don't go for a fourth different jockeys when attempting win number four. "That's three wins in a row and that's three different jockeys - I hope they don't replace me because of that," he laughed.
"I hadn't ridden him before, but he is obviously improving and everything went perfectly."
