Joao Moreira put on another clinic at Sha Tin with a five-win haul but the Magic Man saved "the prestige" for the Group Three Hong Kong Macau Trophy as he made odds-on favourite Arpinati reappear from thin air to take the win.
He had already performed the unlikely and the improbable in his first four wins but Moreira pulled the fifth from his hat as John Moore-trained Arpinati all but vanished when he got shoved back into a slot where the walls were closing in all around.
Macau's Easy Money, Master Of Puppets and Wonder Mossman had led at a torrid pace to the home turn, with Moreira tracking up behind them on the favourite and ready to pounce when the white flag was being hoisted at the 400m.
But, when half a gap opened to come around them, Matthew Chadwick (Super Lifeline) slammed it shut and Moreira found himself back behind the tiring leaders.
"I tried to get out but Matthew had a half a length on me and he held me in, which he has the right to do, so I then had to bide my time and find another way," Moreira said. "I just had to go back inside and hope for some luck and when the gap came it came very late. Not too late but later than I wanted - luckily he had just enough time to get there."
The brilliance of Moreira's trick was not to lose any momentum even as he tiptoed Arpinati across the heels of the flagging front runners to get clear and it was a relieved John Moore who joined an even more relieved punting public as the number went up.
"I think we got lucky at the end in a rough race," said Moore. "When I saw Super Lifeline give him a shove I thought the run wouldn't come again but Arpinati has a pretty good kick to him and didn't need that much time to get through when he was clear. I'm happy that we've won a race for Mr Siu [Pak-kwan] because we haven't had one for him this season and he puts a lot of money into racing."
Siu had three possible contenders for Sunday's Hong Kong Derby, but probably won't have a starter as Moore's Savvy Nature is first reserve, Gonna Run (with Caspar Fownes) hasn't shown any form yet and misses it altogether, while a decision was made to forget about it with Arpinati.
"He struggles with a mile so the Derby was going to be much too far," said Moore. "So we changed course and set him for this and I think 1,400m is his best distance. He hadn't won here before today but he's run four seconds and has been very unlucky to bump into good horses.
"It was Luger who beat him last time, he beat the rest easily and he has just been waiting for the right race. He came from Italy with some problems at the barriers and wasn't fast away when he ran a couple of times late last season but he's doing everything right now. As for the next move, well he has an entry for the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup next week over this distance so I'll speak to Mr Siu about it but I don't really want him up against Able Friend - we'll find him something a bit easier."
Arpinati might have only scrambled home ahead of Pikachu and Gurus Dream in a blanket finish but he did add more weight to the form building around Luger's last start win. Earlier in the day, Santa Fe Sun - who ran third in the race, almost three lengths astern of Arpinati - had overcome difficulties to win the day's other feature in Class Two.
