Mr Lumieres bounced back from an interrupted preparation to show what he is capable of with a strong victory down the Sha Tin straight on Saturday.
The David Hall-trained sprinter looked terrific when winning his Hong Kong debut in February and he backed it up when second to Bravo Watchman in March, but things then went awry.
He failed as an even-money favourite in April in an effort stewards deemed unacceptable before hurting his leg in May and missing a run.
But that was all behind him on Saturday as Alberto Sanna positioned him prominently in running before coming away to beat Eighty Eighty by a length in the Class Three Lei Yue Mun Park Handicap (1,000m).
Hall downplayed the severity of the issues, but was delighted to see him bounce back with a bang.
“He had a tendon sheath problem and his leg blew up and after his last poor performance. He had to go back to the trials and he did that and was ready to race and obviously had to be withdrawn with another problem,” Hall said.
Mr Lumieres comes clear in the final stages for Alberto Sanna.
“He had to have that time to get over it and we weren’t sure if we would get another race into him or not, but he galloped really well on Monday morning and pulled up terrific so we were quite happy to come today.”
While injuries delayed his return to the track, Hall was putting his previous effort when well-beaten down to a bad day at the office.
“I think he was just a bit off-colour on the day,” he said. “He had a pretty tough run when he was second to Bravo Watchman and his next run he went missing – we couldn’t see anything amiss with him.
“He turned up today and got the job done.”
Alberto Sanna is delighted with his win on the sprinter.
The win will propel Mr Lumieres up in grade while the next challenge will be finding out if he can stretch out to 1,200m.
“He’s going to be in Class Two now and at some point he is going to have to be tested around the bend and see if he can run 1,200m,” Hall said.
“He’s got plenty of scope as an individual and I think he will run 1,200m so it will be interesting to see if that helps him with the rise in class now.”
