John Moore will hand over his trainers' championship to John Size this afternoon at Sha Tin, but the season has otherwise been another successful one for him and he can wind it up with Smart Giant winning the feature, the Sha Tin Mile Trophy (1,600m).
Moore will again finish as the leading stakes winner by a considerable margin over Size, and will just about hit the HK$106 million mark he had recently suggested as his goal.
Smart Giant (Brett Prebble) has been a good part of that total, winning twice and earning some minor Group race prize money along the way.
He didn't quite measure up to winning the four-year-old classic events but he wasn't disgraced either, and Moore wisely freshened him up after the Derby, when Smart Giant was showing a few signs of distress. But the gelding showed last start that he has bounced after the break, finishing 10th up the straight in an unsuitably short 1,000m event behind Blaze King.
Drawn the wrong side of the track in gate two, he was outpaced to the rear of the field early and through the middle stages, but he was just starting to find his legs in the final stages and the official sectional times show that he closed off in 21.88 seconds.
Returning to a more appropriate distance, Smart Giant should be wherever the pace dictates as he has shown plenty of tactical speed at these trips in the past.
Penglai Xianzi looks a ready-made leader coming down from gate 11, with Real Specialist (Alvin Ng Ka-chun) likely to follow him across from the outside. Turf Express, Military Move and Keen Marie (Mark du Plessis) also have the speed at this trip to lay up close, but the latter might be ridden a touch conservatively jumping from sprints to the mile.