Trainer David Hall threw off the frustrations of the past fortnight in general and plenty of frustration with Bundle Of Joy specifically as the talented four-year-old rounded out a Joao Moreira treble at Happy Valley.
Hall has endured a testing two weeks under the cloud of positive arsenic tests for a number of his horses, including a winner in Berlinski, but with that seemingly now behind him, it all fell into place for Bundle Of Joy.
The gelding had won one of his prior eight starts this season, but the combination of big weights in Class Three and some difficult draws in Class Two had restricted him to that victory.
"He's a horse I was always confident would be winning in Class Two, but if it hasn't been one thing, it has been the other," Hall said. "He isn't the biggest horse and was struggling under the weight in Class Three, then he had a tough run from a wide draw when he found himself in Class Two.
"So last time, when he drew badly again, we made the decision to go back and ride for luck and he didn't have a lot of it, he was climbing over their heels at the finish."
But a gate one draw last night saw Moreira go back to more positive tactics and Bundle Of Joy led throughout and never really looked in danger.
"Exciting Dream is a smart horse, but with the pull in the weights, I thought we had to be very competitive," Hall said.
"He's versatile, as we've seen, but Bundle Of Joy's gate speed makes him a very decent horse around here. But in saying that, I'm not afraid to go back to Sha Tin with him either."
Moreira opened his scoring with a dead-heat on Ricky Yiu Poon-fai-trained You Are The One, who looked to have the third race in the bag until a big lunge by All Times Lucky (Tommy Berry) right on the line to share the result, then the Brazilian added Victorius for John Size before finishing with Bundle Of Joy.
The treble pulled back two wins on championship leader Zac Purton, who replied with Starting Over for Caspar Fownes in the fifth.
"He's doing the job well enough, but I'm not getting carried away - this looked a really thin race and Zac gave him a perfect run," said Fownes. The top of the trainers' championship leaderboard remained the same, with Size edging up to 52 wins, but there were also singles for Fownes and for Tony Cruz, who took the fourth with Beauty King (Douglas Whyte).
Whyte was also helping out at the other end of the table, with Almond Lee chipping one more win off the 15 he needs for the Jockey Club's performance benchmark. Red Adventure (Whyte) had both the luxury of a good draw and a nice run during the race, and, as a result, became Lee's 11th winner.
"He didn't have a lot of luck last time. Tonight he got the luck and got the win," Lee said.
"When he came here, I thought I was bringing quite a decent horse, but he hasn't really enjoyed Hong Kong, which is why he is in Class Five.
"Anyway, the plan is to bring him back here next Thursday and run again.
"He's a fit horse, in form and I think I can take a chance with him."
Richard Gibson landed his 100th Hong Kong winner in style, grabbing the cup race with recent acquisition Alpinefield to give Olivier Doleuze a double. "Nice to get to 100 in just my third season.
"Alpinefield's owners can take plenty of credit for the win - he is only lightly framed and they've been very patient with him," said Gibson.
Andreas Suborics fell foul of the stewards, receiving a two-day careless riding ban for his efforts on Seasons Star.
