The home team are always formidable in the Sprint and this edition looked to be no exception. Chairmans Sprint Prize winner Luck Bubbles was coming in off a luckless run in the Jockey Club Sprint. Winner of that race, Mr Stunning, looked to be the best of the locals and went out a short priced elect. His trainer John Size had four starters, with the enigmatic Thewizardofoz, his number two seed.

After jumping from gate four, Mr Stunning was given a positive ride by Nash Rawiller, sitting in behind the speed set by Once In A Moon and Peniaphobia. Rawiller let him cruise to the front half way up the straight, however a serious challenger emerged from the chasing pack. Fellow John Size trained runner D B Pin and Olivier Doleuze (20/1) laid down the gauntlet to Mr Stunning. However as hard as they pressed, they were unable to find a way past Rawiller and his mount.

“He’s very professional and he’s proven himself on top of the Hong Kong sprinters, that’s for sure,” Rawiller said.

“I had no intention of going near the rail at any stage,” Rawiller said. “It can change pretty quickly in a race like that, you only need them to steady a little bit and next minute, you’re in the worst spot in the race. Although it looks pretty going down the hill, it can end up being the biggest trap of all time.

“So I sat one-off, I was in a beautiful position with a bit of cover. The horse was in a lovely rhythm. They were talking about the racing gods the other day – well, this was in the hands of the racing gods, definitely.”

“He’s had a lovely lead-up into the race,” Size said. “His three runs were very good. He’s trained well and trialled well all the way through to today. He’s had every opportunity, he drew a good gate, he had a perfect run and Nash put him in a beautiful position so it was hard to see him being beaten from there.

“To D B Pin’s credit, though, he’s probably covered a lot of extra ground from the gate and he’s made him work for it. Both horses have run very well.”

On the runner-up “I am sad but happy. I was very confident,” Doleuze said. “Last time I could not really test him but today he has run against an impressive horse and run a great race. He gave me everything.”

Size said that Mr Stunning would likely be confined to a domestic programme, with races like the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup (1200m) in January and G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m) in April likely to be on his agenda.

“I’m not sure he’s got the constitution to travel, I’m not sure if he’s that tough,” Size said. “At home though, if he’s looked after in Hong Kong, he’ll keep racing well.”