"Magic Man" Joao Moreira made hay while the sun shone yesterday landing 10 winners during champion jockey Zac Purton's enforced absence, but it all gets competitive again this week.
Moreira had three winners at Sha Tin with Dashing Fellow for John Moore, Sergeant Titanium for John Size and Thunder Flyer for Francis Lui Kin-wai, and Purton will resume 17 wins behind the Brazilian on Wednesday.
"Yes, Zac will be back, but that's not my focus, my focus is to keep doing my job well and today was a good day," said Moreira, who drifted from odds-on to more than 2-1 in the Jockey Challenge early before finally roaring away with it late in the card.
Three-year-old Dashing Fellow had run terrific races in defeat so far this season, but Moreira believes getting a win will help him progress. "He'll know that he won a race, I'm sure of it, and that should bring him on in confidence," he said.
"Physically, John has done as much as he can with a young horse like him, but I do think there is a lot of improvement to come mentally. He'll go up to Class Three and the weight drop is going to help him out there."
Size was not spouting any optimism about Sergeant Titanium's ascension to Class Three if that day comes, but was happy to get a win with the very willing Irish-bred four-year-old.
"He's a lovely big horse with a great action and a nice temperament - sadly, he's not all that fast," Size said.
"But full credit to him, he's won a race and his attitude is the big thing he's got going for him and suggests he might win another race or two as he goes on."
Thunder Flyer was falling into the category of a horse who keeps having to concede weight to something better on the day at the top of Class Four.
Lui had no option but to take him up a grade when his latest second pushed him up into Class Three and Thunder Flyer responded by being tactically much more switched on.
"He isn't normally the best beginner but, with the track helping horses near the pace today, he helped me by jumping straight into the right place without me pushing," said Moreira.
