Caspar Fownes has made a renewed push for Joao Moreira to be brought back to Hong Kong after the pair combined for a running double to open Wednesday night’s card at Happy Valley.

Fownes, who finished the night with a treble, had hoped to bring Moreira back as his stable jockey in October, but the Jockey Club knocked back the Brazilian, declaring the roster was full.

“It’s up to the club and they’ll now have to answer the question [as to why Moreira was knocked back],” said Fownes after watching Moreira deliver him success with Family Fortune and Lucky Generations.

“Hopefully the club will take this on board and bring him here towards the end of the season. That would be ideal.

“He’s so talented and brings so much to the game – the fans love him, he is the drawcard. He drives up turnover and all the things I could say and more. He is just a star.

“He’s a good person and gives the club everything. You’ve seen two horses that are not really good – they’re moderate – and they’ve gone and won.”

In perhaps a night of vindication for the 58-year-old handler, he watched Moreira make the best possible start to his brief return when Family Fortune swooped late to collect the Class Five Ventris Handicap (1,650m).

Held up in a race that favoured front runners, Moreira had a wall of horses to pass turning into the straight but managed to get another gear out of the well-backed $3.9 favourite late to surge past Sterling Wongchoy.

Although his backers would have been forgiven for giving up turning in, it was a victory that Moreira was always confident of mid-race.

“He was an easy horse to ride. He doesn’t really have that gate speed so I just had to ride him for luck in the first half of the race,” said Moreira.

“I was very lucky to pull him out as we were turning for home and he just dashed, indicating to me that he was going to be the winner a long way from home. So I was just lucky enough to get on at the right time.”

Things got even better for Moreira and Fownes 30 minutes later when Lucky Generations cruised home to collect the Class Five Morrison Hill Handicap (1,200m).

It was another superb ride by Moreira, who always looked set to collect the prize.

Corleone capped Fownes’ big night with victory in the second leg of the International Jockeys’ Championship (IJC), a 1,650m handicap, and that win saw him join Mark Newnham on 24 winners in the trainers’ championship.

He is runner-up by virtue of the seconds recorded by Newnham, but he was on the right side of a countback when beating out Cody Mo Wai-kit to win the HK$300,000 IJC trainers’ bonus.

Meanwhile, Fivefortwo caused one of the biggest shocks of the season so far when collecting the Class Four Canal Handicap (1,650m) at odds of $71.4 for trainer Francis Lui Kin-wai.

Unconsidered by the market after three heavy Sha Tin defeats, the switch to Happy Valley and a drop in grade clearly paid dividends as he surged home from midfield to win by three-quarters of a length from a closing Sunday’s Serenade.

“It was a big surprise. The drop in class and switch to Happy Valley freshened him up,” said Lui. “I think he has room to improve, though it’s hard to say how much. I think we will keep him at Happy Valley for now.”

Elsewhere, the classy Helene Feeling got his first win since January when surging home to collect the concluding Class Two Wong Nai Chung Handicap (1,800m) for Danny Shum Chap-shing and Hugh Bowman.