Little Paradise emerged from an almost impossible position to stamp himself as a rising star of Hong Kong racing with a breathtaking victory in Sunday’s Classic Mile at Sha Tin.

Held up for clear running from the top of the straight until the 250m, the Jimmy Ting Koon-ho-trained gelding was hooked to the centre of the track by Vincent Ho Chak-yiu and unleashed a blistering turn of foot to soar past his rivals in the blink of an eye.

In a testament to his class, Little Paradise romped in by two lengths despite the difficult run as Ting and Ho celebrated their second wins in the coveted feature.

“He’s a very good horse. In the last 300 I was a bit scared because he got stuck, but when he got a gap Vincent Ho said he flew home,” said Ting, who won the race as a jockey when it was known as the Derby Trial on Industrialist 26 years ago.

“I won the [Derby] Trial and this time won the Classic Mile – fantastic.”

Stepping up to 1,600m for the first time after five wins from eight starts, Little Paradise settled behind midfield on the inside rail with Winfield setting a strong speed from the front.

Any queries about the distance were quickly put to bed when the son of Toronado rocketed through a gap between rivals to salute as the $5.4 second favourite, scoring by two lengths from Infinite Resolve.

“The main thing stepping up to the mile for him was to relax no matter what and I didn’t rush him because we couldn’t and we know he has a really good turn of foot from his last run,” Ho said of Little Paradise.

“Today, he relaxed very well and at the top of the straight, I was looking to come out and I could see Zac [Purton on Sagacious Life] in the three-wide position and for some time I needed to hold him back because the horse in front of me wasn’t going anywhere, but luckily we ended up having room to track Zac up and move to his outside.

“Once I pressed the button, he just kicked.”

Ho, who also won the Classic Mile on champion Golden Sixty in 2020, savoured victory in the first leg of the four-year-old series almost a year after a nasty concussion sustained in a race fall put him out of action for several months last year.

“I’m very grateful for the support I’ve had in coming back from injury and to win the Classic Mile is encouraging and I’m always grateful for everything,” Ho said.

“Every winner I appreciate a lot more than before because of that [injury].”

Ho expects Little Paradise to handle the 1,800m of the Classic Cup on March 1 and 2,000m of the city’s biggest race, the HK$26 million BMW Hong Kong Derby, on March 22.

Of the beaten brigade, Infinite Resolve impressed on his first test at a mile while Beauty Bolt kept on well after tracking the speed to run third.

“He ran very well – showed pace, I had a beautiful run between horses, the horse relaxed well and then he quickened well. I’m happy,” jockey Alexis Badel said of Infinite Resolve’s run.

Sagacious Life, who Purton chose to ride over Little Paradise and five others, loomed as a winning chance at the 300m but couldn’t sustain his run when finishing fourth.

“Terrible,” Purton said when asked about Sagacious Life’s performance.

Invincible Ibis, the $3.2 favourite, settled second last and made his run down the outside, but he was never a major threat when finishing sixth.

“Credible race. I think he could have done with a bit more tempo but that said, I thought he peaked on his run at the 100m, so he’s going to need to iron that out next start,” Invincible Ibis’ rider Hugh Bowman said.

James McDonald was suspended for one meeting and fined HK$60,000 for causing interference to Top Dragon at the 150m on Beauty Bolt.