It was a red-letter day for two apprentice jockeys at Sha Tin, with Victor Wong Chun kicking off his local career while Matthew Poon Ming-fai reached an important milestone.

Poon found the lead on Regency Bo Bo for Tony Cruz in the final race and blew away the white-hot favourite sitting outside him, Raging Storm, to give the apprentice his 45th win in Hong Kong.

He now gets a reduction in his weight claim from seven pounds to five pounds – and is quite happy about it.

“Actually, on the lightest handicaps, claiming the last pound or two of the seven-pound allowance was not that easy but I won’t have any problem claiming the five,” Poon said.

It was an important win for the young rider and he said the outside draw for Regency Bo Bo had been a key component in finding the front the right way.

“I was happy with the draw because I looked at his videos and an outside gate allows him to take his time to come over and get into his rhythm,” Poon said.

For Wong, it was day one and his first three rides here after having some success in his training in Australia.

He admitted to being “a little nervous” and got a case study in how quickly things happen in Hong Kong races when Joao Moreira took his position in the blink of an eye in the Class Four staying race.

“It’s a little different to South Australia. The racing is very tight and you shift even half a horse and somebody is in there,” Wong said.

His mount, Cloud Nine was sitting outside the leader, Sum Win Dragon, down the side of the track on the final turn when Cloud Nine moved out slightly just as Sum Win Dragon moved in slightly and Moreira immediately had Audacity in between them and edging Wong out three wide. It was the winning move for Audacity.

Wong didn’t manage a win but escaped without injury or suspension – which had been the first-day fate of the last two apprentices to debut here – while his assigned trainer Tony Millard produced one of a number of impressive winners on the card in Refined Treasure (Chad Schofield).

“He won impressively last time but I think he was even better today,” Schofield said. “Full credit to Tony. He’s taken his time and spaced his runs. There’s not much of this horse, he’s not a big horse, so to win as he did with 133 pounds was a great sign for the future. He’s only three and he’s going to develop into a lovely horse later.”