Happy Valley's first night back from vacation was punctuated with enough highlights to fill three meetings, as new jockey Nicola Pinna rode his first winner, trainer Me Tsui Yu-sak landed the first turf treble of his career and Gary Ng Ting-keung made an unaccustomed strong start to the term, reports the Racing Post HK.

Appropriately, Italian rider Pinna was aboard Tsui's winner Forza - his name means "strong" in the rider's native tongue - and it was no accident that another of the yard's heroes, Golden Bauhinia was ridden by another new boy in Karis Teetan.

"When I was a new trainer, I appreciated the chances that people gave me," Tsui said. "Now I like to give the new jockeys a chance to prove themselves, too."

For Pinna it was a nice surprise, of sorts, although the breakthrough win for the jockey was three in a row for the horse.

"Forza is what I yell out when I go to Juventus football games," Pinna smiled.

"But, seriously, I know it is important to get a winner early, maybe get better rides. I spoke to Douglas Whyte who trialled the horse but had another one in the race, and he was very helpful so I'm grateful to him."

The treble was a triumph for Tsui, who had three-timers on March 23, 2011, and again on June 5 the same year, but nearly all those wins came on the all-weather track.

Before Teetan and Pinna made their presence felt, Whyte had steered home Tsui's first winner, the seven-year-old Fresh Air in the Class Five opener.

He hadn't won since March last year but more remarkably, given that the Durban Demon has now won three of four on Fresh Air, the jockey had not been aboard since late 2010.

Gary Ng is normally a slower starter each season but he snapped up something expected in the Class Five mile with Casa Junior and something totally surprising with St Yazin later in the night, both with Eddie Lai Wai-ming in the saddle.

"This was the right time for Casa Junior. He is a horse who doesn't carry much condition and doesn't handle much pressure, so I was confident with him coming back after the summer break, with some weight on him, but I couldn't say he will keep it on now," said Ng. "He was expected but St Yazin completely unexpected. He wasn't handling turns very well last season. He is better now but this race looked too short."

A big night was anticipated for Zac Purton, but he had to wait until the final race to land his lone winner.

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