Dennis Yip Chor-hong-trained Secret Weapon left a good impression after his initial appearance with a fourth to Full Talent on Sunday and his first win isn't far off.
There were other good pointers in the race, with Full Talent three wide facing the breeze for much of the race - albeit in a moderately run affair which made that less of a penalty - and Sharp Hunter showed with his third after missing the start that he is as much a Sha Tin horse as a Happy Valley horse.
But this space has already flagged Full Talent as a horse to follow since his debut win and Secret Weapon gets the primary nod from Sunday's race because he too is a lightly raced animal with blue sky to him.
After a slowish start, he had a lovely trip through the race but few Private Purchases get their act together fast enough to run so well at their local debut and that ability to understand the job quickly has been a highlight of Secret Weapon's brief career.
In the UK, he improved sharply from a debut fourth to win his second run by nine lengths and, given that Sunday's effort exceeded that maiden-winning performance by some margin, onwards and upwards seems to be Secret Weapon's immediate future.
After the Class Four trophy, won by Really The Best, it had to be asked whether there was a better run all day than Island Garden.
It wasn't just that Zac Purton had to go back to last from his outside draw then had tempo against him - he could have overcome that - but he found himself with nothing to take him into the race rounding the turn.
Purton had stolen ground on the inside to get on the back of favourite Mr Gourmet, who in turn was on the back of the very heavily-backed Winning Premium. It was absolutely the right move - except that both started dropping out for no apparent reason soon after and Purton found himself surrounded by failing favourites and legless outsiders while the race got out of his reach. Unquestionably, Island Garden was the moral victor and he should convert that to an actual victory very soon.
