He might have given connections and punters an almighty scare when breaking through the barriers pre-race, but it was a case of all’s well that ends well for My Wish at Sha Tin on Sunday.

Heavily backed into $3.1 favouritism for the Class Three Santa Monica Handicap (1,400m), My Wish broke through the front of his barrier when attempting to anticipate the start of the race.

A crisis was averted when jockey Luke Ferraris held on to his reins, preventing the Mark Newnham-trained gelding from running loose on the track. He was then given the all-clear to start by officials.

And despite drawing the outside gate in the field of 14, My Wish showed plenty of fight to stamp himself a Classic Mile prospect with his second win from five starts.

“He’s a horse with a lot of high energy and a lot of nervous energy and that probably caused him to break the gate, so I’m just happy Luke hung on to him. I didn’t need him running loose,” Newnham said.

“He’s only a small horse, so he takes a little bit of managing, but he’s got a big heart. I’ve got some horses that are big and slow, so I’m happy to have a small and fast one.”

Ferraris executed a pre-race plan to perfection, allowing My Wish to cruise across from the wide barrier to settle outside leader Polaris.

Seizing the lead early in the straight, the Flying Artie gelding sprinted strongly and shook off a determined challenge from Sky Trust to score by half a length.

They broke well clear of their rivals, with Stellar Swift a further two and a half lengths behind in third.

“Fair to say we deserved that,” Ferraris said. “We’ve got to work on his barrier manners a bit, he can be a difficult customer, but he’s got the ability and he showed it today.

“It was not an easy feat stepping up in distance and he had to show us he is the horse we think he could be. He’s done a superb job from barrier 14 – he’s pulled off a really good win.”

After passing his first test at seven furlongs, My Wish will be considered for a tilt at the first leg of the four-year-old series, the Classic Mile in January.

“If he gets his rating there, we will,” Newnham said of the feature target. “We probably won’t jump straight to 1,600m, but he’s got good ability.

“He’s got a strong enough pedigree on his female side to say that he’ll run a mile. I’m not sure after that, but his race manners are good. He gets on pace and he relaxes, so if he saves energy, he should run a mile.”

Elsewhere, Steps Ahead pressed his own claims as a Classic Mile contender with a victorious return in the Class Three Dr.G Handicap (1,400m).

“He’s got potential,” trainer Francis Lui Kin-wai said after Steps Ahead narrowly beat Newnham’s Armour War Eagle.

“[The Classic Mile] is the plan, we’ll see how we go. He will need to win more races to get his rating up.”

A winner on two of five starts, Steps Ahead sealed a double for Vincent Ho Chak-yiu after he also booted home the Caspar Fownes-trained Flying Luck.

Geneva was another four-year-old to win impressively on Sunday, but trainer David Hall wouldn’t be drawn into declaring him a Classic Mile prospect.

“He’s just won a Class Four race, there’s a long way to go before we get to the four-year-old series,” Hall said after Geneva stormed home to beat Packing Angel by half a length in the Kate Tokyo Handicap (1,200m).

“Class Three is another hurdle for him to jump now and his next start will tell us if he’s got anything more serious than that to worry about.”