Martin Harley broke his Hong Kong duck at Happy Valley tonight (Wednesday, 6 March) with an accomplished ride on the Tony Millard-trained longshot High Five.

“It’s a big relief, for sure – it’s definitely not easy here,” the Irishman said after driving the 87/1 chance to a short-head success in the Class 3 Fenwick Handicap (1200m) over the fast-finishing Alcari.

Harley had endured a sparse run of outs since arriving in town at the beginning of February. On Hong Kong’s hard-nosed circuit, securing race rides is difficult enough, and the new arrival from Britain managed only 14 before this evening, third-place being his best return.

A two-meeting suspension hadn’t helped his cause either. But Harley had caught the eye of the in-form Millard, and, as good as his word, the South African handler gave the jockey his chance.

“I’ve been annoying Mr. Millard a little bit for a winner because I’ve seen that he’s well able to train them. He said he’d give me a winner and fair play to him – thankfully, my first one is for him and hopefully he supports me going forward,” Harley said.

Despite the limited opportunities and back door finishes, Harley feels he has learnt plenty so far.

“The first few rides have been a good learning curve. It’s not like English racing, you can’t stay jollied up to the furlong pole and then expect them to go – you have to keep the rhythm up here,” he said.

“High Five is the best horse I’ve ridden by far since I came here and he proved it by winning. He was an 80/1 shot or whatever but he’s been in Class 1 company before and ran well, so it wasn’t a big shock to me.”

And, with a win in on the board, he is keen to kick on and put his lean first month behind him.

“That’s a good confidence booster tonight. It’s a big relief to get my first winner and it’s proven that I can ride a winner or maybe more in Hong Kong.”

Sanna’s plan rules

Alberto Sanna, too, has found horses with chances tough to find in recent months, let alone winners, so the hard-working Italian made sure his planning was impeccable before heading out on Ruletheroost in the Class 4 Jaffe Handicap (1650m).

Tagged on to the tail of 2/1 favourite Happy Warrior in a three-deep alley, Sanna tracked Zac Purton’s mount when the champion jockey made a mid-race advance from midfield to the lead. Once in the straight, Ruletheroost responded to Sanna’s determined drive, edging past Happy Warrior to score by a neck.

“This is my own speed map,” Sanna said afterwards, pointing to notes made on a piece of paper. “Here, this is me, sitting behind Zac and I was sure he’d sit back here, not forward. My plan was to follow him – actually, I planned that he would be two deep and I’d follow but he couldn’t get in so I followed three deep with cover.

“But on the last corner, he left me three wide with no cover, so I wasn’t happy but actually it was the horse’s first time here, he saw the corner and he was a bit unhappy at first but then he kept cornering well and in the straight he fought on well.”

The rider had partnered the Frankie Lor-trained maiden in barrier trials and all of his six previous races and was eager to see that work pay off for connections.

“I was really happy to win on this horse because I always ride him and the plan was to run next week but I was booked on another horse so Frankie changed it and he gave me this chance. That means a lot to me because he’s a good trainer and he was willing to change the plan to work with me. Not many do that.”

Sanna was registering only his second win since returning from a hip fracture in December.

De Sousa up and down

Silvestre de Sousa dismounted Mr Darthvegar after passing the post eighth behind Ruletheroost. The rider, whose mount reared in the gate, was taken to hospital with lower back pain.

That came after the Brazilian sealed his 40th win of the campaign in section two of the Class 4 Johnston Handicap (1200m) on the Millard-trained Gift Of Lifeline.

The night’s finale, meanwhile, was expected to be a shoot-out between two young gun sprinters, Country Star and Music Addition. Both misfired as the Ricky Yiu-trained Flat Heaven skipped through a gap and scored at odds of 47/1 under Matthew Poon.

“He’s a very honest horse and he’s really acclimatised quickly even though he’s from France – you seldom see a horse from there win second start,” Yiu said.

Helene Charisma has descended far since the day in 2016 when he won the G1 Grand Prix de Paris. John Moore’s charge finally broke his Hong Kong duck at start 28, having dropped to Class 3 and a rating of 74. Purton guided the 2.5 favourite to a two and a half-length win over horses of markedly inferior innate ability.

First season trainer Jimmy Ting has developed a knack of winning the first race on a card. When Chad Schofield drove Dragon Warrior home in the Class 5 Lockhart Handicap (1800m) it was the 10th time this term that the handler had taken a fixture’s opening race, and that haul includes the first race of the season and the first of 2019.

Trainer Peter Ho collected a double thanks to Very Rich Man in race two and Sumstreetsumwhere in race five. The former scored under apprentice Dylan Mo, while the latter gave Ho’s former apprentice Ben So his second success of the campaign.

Hong Kong racing continues at Sha Tin on Sunday, 10 March.