Racing returns to Sha Tin on Sunday with an 11-race programme that includes two Group Three contests to close out the season.
The week brought heavy disruption to Hong Kong, with 70 millimetres of rain recorded in the Sha Tin area and more than 3,000 lightning strikes logged on Thursday alone.
The worst of the weather is expected to have moved out into the South China Sea before the first race gets underway on Sunday.
Conditions should be near ideal for racing, though finding winners remains a difficult task with the long season drawing to a close next month.
Just eight meetings remain on the calendar, giving jockeys, trainers, and punters alike precious little time to make their mark before the curtain falls.
Former four-time champion jockey Joao Moreira continues to show no signs of slowing, riding with the same intensity and hunger that defined his championship years.
Seven winners across the last four meetings underline the Brazilian’s determination to help trainer Caspar Fownes secure another trainers’ championship title.
Moreira and Fownes team up seven times on the Sunday programme, but it is Moreira’s outside rides that carry the most interest for racegoers.
The Brazilian has been booked to ride the Tony Cruz-trained progressive galloper Winning Ovation in the seven-furlong Group Three Premier Cup Handicap at 12.05pm, and the booking looks an astute one.
The four-year-old found the step up to a mile his undoing when finishing a close-up fifth in the Group Three Lion Rock Trophy last month, making the return to his favoured seven-furlong trip a significant advantage.
Winning Ovation has won over that distance four times, giving connections every reason to believe this drop back in trip will bring out the best in him.
Moreira also partners another Cruz-trained runner, Beauty Joy, in the nine-furlong Group Three Premier Plate Handicap at 1.15pm, adding further firepower to the trainer’s Sunday afternoon.
Beauty Joy is a tough and seasoned campaigner who won this very race from an eight-pound higher mark last season, demonstrating a strong affinity with the conditions he faces.
The gelding warmed up for Sunday’s assignment when beaten only a whisker by Light Years Charm over a mile in his most recent outing.
An inside draw will allow Beauty Joy to sit closer to the early pace, and with that positional advantage, he should take plenty of beating on the day.