Brenton Avdulla sat out two races at Sha Tin on Sunday – one through no fault of his own but another because he failed to make the weight – before closing the opening-day card with his best win in Hong Kong.

Avdulla steered Tony Cruz’s The Golden Scenery to victory in the Class Two Tai Mo Shan Handicap (1,400m) after riding neither Sinba in the Class Three Lantau Peak Handicap (1,200m) nor Vanquisher in the second section of the Class Yi Tung Shan Handicap (1,200m).

Jamie Richards scratched Sinba on Sunday morning due to a blood abnormality, and the Kiwi trainer had to source another jockey, Derek Leung Ka-chun, to partner Vanquisher after Australian rider Avdulla advised the New Zealander he could not weigh out at 121 pounds.

“With everything going on – the typhoons – the horses were probably overweight and some of the jockeys were overweight,” Avdulla said. “It won’t happen again.”

Jockey Club stewards fined Avdulla HK$5,000 for not fulfilling his engagement aboard Vanquisher. However, the 13-time Group One winner earned more than 30 times that amount when The Golden Scenery snapped his 14-race losing streak that lasted all last season.

Avdulla adopted unusually positive tactics on The Golden Scenery, and they paid off, the duo winning the Tai Mo Shan Handicap by half a length from Find My Love, with last term’s Classic Cup champion Super Sunny Sing close up in third place.

“It worked out well,” Avdulla said. “He’s usually a horse who gets back, but he trialled with a bit of speed in his legs, and Tony was open to me being more positive. He wanted me to be more positive.

“The way we drew, we were going to need a fraction of luck, but we knew Karis [Teetan], Lyle [Hewitson] and Luke [Ferraris] were likely to go forward on their horses, so the spot was there was for the taking.

“He probably got there a fraction soon, but to his credit, he knuckled down. He’s always been at this sort of level, and Tony had him prepped ready to go.”

Avdulla is confident he will be successful in Hong Kong – he holds a half-season Jockey Club licence, which comes up for extension in February – not least because of the strong backing the likes of living legend Cruz are giving him in the jurisdiction.

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“I was here for 11 weeks and it probably took me six weeks to ride a winner. Then it started to flow, and a lot of them ran well without winning,” Avdulla said of his experience late last term.

“I’ve been given a good support base over the last couple of weeks of last season and coming into this season. Tony’s been one big supporter. That’s my second winner for him. Other local trainers like Manfred [Man Ka-leung] have been really good, too.”