Ricky Yiu Poon-fai has celebrated in style on his return to the racetrack following heart surgery, saluting with Excellent Chariot at Sha Tin on Thursday just 12 days after rushing himself to hospital.

The 63-year-old was at home by himself when he started experiencing chest pains on June 19, saying he got himself to Union Hospital “just in time”.

“I was fully aware that one of these days this might happen to me, that’s why I made a quick decision to take a taxi to the hospital,” Yiu said.

“The pain from the chest came constantly, like every three or four minutes. At the very beginning I hesitated a little bit because I was alone at home with no one there for me so I took a taxi and I was just in time.

“When I got to the reception of the hospital things were getting critical, they sent me to the emergency unit and gave me painkillers. It still didn’t really kill my pain so they took me through the MRI and one of the vessels was blocked 90 per cent, so they did surgery for two hours.”

Yiu has bounced back remarkably quickly from the scare, returning to trackwork for the first time on Thursday morning before making the decision to attend the races.

“I’m about 85-90 per cent, I’m just taking things slowly after the surgery. I felt better coming to trackwork this morning so I decided to come to the races,” he said.

He had some added pep in his step after the Class Four Continuous Development Handicap (1,200m), with Excellent Chariot settling just behind midfield under Neil Callan before working home nicely in the straight for his third win of the season.

“He’s been very genuine, hopefully he’ll do something in Class Three next season,” Yiu said of the four-year-old.

The victory rounded out a double for Callan after the Irishman had earlier delivered in the Class Five World-Class Leadership Handicap (1,200m), willing the Caspar Fownes-trained Telecom Missile home by a nose ahead of Voyage Star.

It was Callan’s best day in the saddle since he returned from a 15-meeting ban for his conduct during a stewards’ inquiry on February 3 and the 42-year-old’s first double since December 6, with Excellent Chariot one of his winners on that day as well.

“You know of my hiccups in the season, [I] missed out on a lot of winners in two months,” said Callan, who was initially suspended for the rest of 2020-21 before having his ban reduced on appeal.

“I suppose that once I was in the [suspension], I didn’t really think that I was going to come back. So to be able to get the opportunity to come back, I wanted to prove that I was very able and very capable to be here.

“So, this is what I’m doing now. I couldn’t ride Excellent Chariot last time and circumstances went against me because I had already committed, but as soon as I saw him hit the last time from a difficult spot, I chased Ricky and he was very happy to be put me on. It’s always nice to finish the season off strong.”

The haul takes Callan to 25 winners for the season and catapults him into a tie for 10th spot in the jockeys’ premiership with four meetings remaining in his Hong Kong career.