Evergreen speedball Tomodachi Kokoroe continued his remarkable season with a dominant win in the Group Two Premier Bowl (1,200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday.

The always consistent seven-year-old was winless in 11 starts last season, but his fortunes have taken a drastic U-turn this campaign and he marched into the Premier Bowl on the back of two rapid wins in Class Two company.

Brown-lamped into $3.95, Harry Bentley always oozed confidence travelling alone in fifth behind a contested lead. Given the hurry up into the straight, Tomodachi Kokoroe surged to the lead in a matter of strides and was a much easier winner than the one-and-a-quarter-length margin suggests.

The only horse to record a faster time over the Sha Tin 1,200m than Tomodachi Kokoroe’s 1:07.39 is the world’s best sprinter, his stablemate Ka Ying Rising, and trainer David Hayes certainly has the Hong Kong sprinting division wrapped around his little finger.

“Sometimes you can paint a race map, like in The Everest, that you pray your horse will get, and Harry put him in that spot,” said Hayes. “With the light weight, it probably flattered him a little bit.

“Last race he had a terrible run and still won, so I think he’s a legitimate very good sprinter. In Cairns and at the Valley, he showed he holds his form very well – he was doing it at the Valley through the 60 ratings and now he’s up at that consistent 100 rating. He’s an exciting horse.

“He runs time so you cannot ignore that. If he gets a good run in a big race he’ll run well.”

It is very rare for a horse as old as Tomodachi Kokoroe to make such rapid improvement, but a change of headgear has made all the difference for the son of Written Tycoon.

“It comes down to the one-eyed blinker, if you look at his form. When the one-eyed blinker went on he went up a class,” said Hayes.

“He’s just running straight now. He was a consistent horse making mistakes but now he doesn’t make mistakes.”

The victory was a first Group Two success in Hong Kong for Bentley, who moves on to six wins for the campaign, and he was quick to salute a horse who has thrived this season.

“A massive thank you to [owners the Tak Sum Syndicate] for the support of putting me on board in the first place. I had a great spin on him last season at Happy Valley and I was delighted to rekindle the partnership this season,” said Bentley.

“My goodness, the horse has gone from strength to strength. I’ve said it 100 times in interviews, but David has prepared this horse incredibly well, so credit to him and his team.

“I obviously had an extremely willing partner underneath me today [and] 115lb is a huge pull in these races, especially when you come in with a horse in such good form. They’re hard to beat.”

The John Size-trained Raging Blizzard ran home late into second, while Packing Hermod and Wunderbar stuck to the task well for third and fourth, respectively.

Helios Express, the main adversary to Ka Ying Rising last season, returned with an encouraging fifth off a big weight of 135lb.