The Douglas Whyte-Lyle Hewitson bandwagon continues to roll and the pair teamed up for another double at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.

The South African dream team has now produced nine winners from the past eight meetings after the wins of Smiling Face and Valiant Elegance, the latter who completed a hat-trick of victories in the Class Three Kau Sai Chau Handicap (1,200m).

Hewitson, who was riding his 13th winner in less than a month, punched the air as he crossed the line on Valiant Elegance, who was saluting in his first attempt at Class Three level.

With wins on his two previous starts achieved when making all the running from decent draws, Hewitson may have been tempted to force Valiant Elegance to the front early from stall eight but he displayed plenty of restraint to settle his mount in midfield.

That calmness was rewarded when Valiant Elegance came with a strong late run in the straight to win by an easy half a length.

Valiant Elegance’s win supplemented Whyte and Hewitson’s earlier strike with Smiling Face, who broke through for the first time in Hong Kong at his 30th attempt in the Class Five Waglan Island Handicap (1,650m).

“He’s been very unlucky,” Whyte said. “He finished second in his first two Griffin races and the two horses who beat him are now in Class Three and Class Two.

“He’s always showed ability but it’s taken a lot of time to get things together. I’m glad he’s got a win as the owners have been very patient.”

Whyte’s double takes him to 37 winners for the season, just four behind last year’s total, and he must now harbour hopes of notching his first half-century as a trainer.

The closing race on the card, the Class Two Grass Island Handicap (1,200m), looked a tight affair on paper with a host of young improvers locking horns but the race was turned into a procession by Keep You Warm.

Zac Purton’s only winner of the night travelled like a dream behind the leader Mclucky and showed a fantastic turn of foot in the straight to win by an easy two lengths.

Elsewhere on Wednesday night, punters found the card difficult to navigate with the first six favourites failing to fire.

The biggest shock came in the Class Four Ninepin Group Handicap (1,200m) when Oversubscribed swooped from last turning into the straight to first passing the post.

Sent off at $68.70, the sprinter had shown next to nothing in his past two starts – his first two runs over 1,200m since April 2020 – but he was given a fine ride by Alexis Badel and trainer David Hall was surprised that his six-year-old had delivered over this trip

“He’d been running over 1,000m religiously week in, week out and he’s never really one that sustains a long sprint, so we never had the confidence that he would run 1,200m,” Hall said.

“He’s also a difficult horse to ride. If he doesn’t get snagged at the start, he travels way too strong, is fierce, over-races and then he’s quite weak. He was given a good ride by Alexis. Now he’s got the 1,200m string to his bow we’ll definitely try it again.”

Telecom Cheetah was ridden by Joao Moreira and sent off at $4.2 when disappointing on his last start but he popped up at much bigger odds when winning the Class Four Tung Lung Chau Handicap (1,800m).

The first leg of a Badel double, the Dennis Yip Chor-hong-trained runner came from a long way back turning into the straight to salute by half a length at $26.