Joao Moreira jagged another double but it could easily have been three winners if not for a typo in a text message that denied him more spoils at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.
The Magic Man continued to slice into Zac Purton's Jockeys' Championship lead with wins on You Read My Mind and Call Me Achiever - but victory on Enthusiasm was the one that got away.
Moreira broke through on Enthusiasm last start, two weeks ago, but when trainer David Ferraris went to re-book the in-demand Brazilian he sent a text with the wrong date. Moreira committed to ride eventual third-place getter Winnie's Horse in the Centenary Challenge Cup, and Karis Teetan was legged aboard the winner.
"I wanted Joao on again, but when I sent him a text it said the 16th, not the 19th - and by the time we had figured the mistake out, he had already taken another ride," Ferraris said. "It was a bit embarrassing, but we got the win in the end."
Moreira's wins both came with on-pace rides - he was handed a soft lead in a Class Three on Derek Cruz-trained 2.9 favourite You Read My Mind, which held off plunge horse Polymer Win, which was backed from double figures to start 3.7 second favourite. Earlier he had extracted a second career win from Me Tsui Yu-sak's Call Me Achiever. Moreira moved 54 wins for the season so far, but Purton did manage to open the evening with a Class Five win on Dennis Yip Chor-hung's All Times Lucky to maintain a five-win buffer at the top of the table.
Yip's slow start to the season seems to be turning around - he later bookended the meeting with his double when Travel Brand scored in the last for Mirco Demuro, who also had a double.
Yip has 16 winners for the term and is confident of a strong second half of the term. "Our horses are racing well and we have some new horses coming along too," he said.
The most eye-catching win of the night went to a horse raced in very familiar colours to race fans, black with green cross sashes; Key Witness scoring for trainer Tony Cruz and owners Archie and Betty da Silva.
Key Witness won't ever reach the heights of Hong Kong's greatest ever horse Silent Witness, but his last-from-first Class Four victory at his second career start indicated a very bright future.
After being sluggish away, and showing little pace in the run, Key Witness came from last at the 250m mark - Demuro pulling into the clear, and the big chestnut letting down with some impressive acceleration to quickly round up the field. "He is a slow starter. I told Mirco to be as patient as he could be, but the most important thing was that he come on the outside and not to go between horses," Crus said. "Last time he went in between horses and he was very shy."
David Hall could back Mr Marfach up in a 2,200m race next week after the seven-year-old won for the first time in over two years in an 1,800m Class Five.
"There is a 60-35 Class Four over 2,200m here and we will consider that, that is where his only previous win was," Hall said. "He should like the extra ground." Chris So Wai-yin's dream first season continued with his 28th winner, eight-year-old Ambitious Treasure (Alex Lai Hoi-win) holding off a hard-charging Owners' Glory (Dicky Lui Cheuk-yin) by a short head.
Meanwhile, trainer Sean Woods was fined $3,000 for slapping his runner Wire To Wire before a race at Sha Tin last Sunday.
