It was not quite by magic, but it will do until magic comes along, as Joao Moreira kept appearing along the inside fence on Saturday on his way to picking up a winning treble.
Moreira opened his trio with Happy Moments in the second, who probably needed all the luck gate three afforded him, then added Soul Achiever from gate two and wound up appropriately with Red Dancer from gate one.
Not only was the mathematical progression logical, but John Size-trained Red Dancer was a wholly appropriate win for former Jockey Club chairman Ronald Arculli on the day the club celebrated its 130-year anniversary.
John Moore-trained Happy Moments was the one of the three who spent the least time near the rail, with Moreira leaving it at the top of the straight, but Soul Achiever and Red Dancer were there to the very end.
"I was quite worried on Soul Achiever, because I got behind a horse who was going nowhere," Moreira said. "Able Talent came back in my face and I couldn't go anywhere. I had to ride for luck but he was very brave going in between horses and showed that great turn of foot that he has, which got him out of trouble. He's got a future."
And the Tony Millard-trained four-year-old put the recent past behind him too as he sneaked through late at his first run for over three months after suffering a hoof injury in October.
"He is a talented horse and relatively untapped - I really haven't squeezed him. When he came to me, he had very bad feet and what happened was just a reccurrence and we tried to fix it and it came back again. A lot of horses have problems, you just have to work with what you have got," Millard said. "We actually wanted him off the rail today but there were a few people hunting us, which can happen in Hong Kong racing when you have a favourite. I thought from where he ended up we would need some luck to get a rails run but it ended up a great ride."
Red Dancer was another triumph for Moreira who made full use of gate one and didn't have to go outside horses, a blessing in the final 200m when there was quite a bit going on with the horses away from the rail.
"I could hear screaming on the outside but luckily things happened the right way for us this time and the gap opened up on the inside," Moreira said.
Red Dancer had been a bridesmaid previously, with a string of minor placings and prize money cheques but no wins last season in a fairly busy campaign of 16 starts.
"I think these European horses can take a long time to fully acclimatise," said Arculli. "John seems to have taken him more slowly this time and let him get over last season and he has come back well."
