John Size continued his ominous march towards the top of the trainers’ premiership after another double at Sha Tin on Sunday, headlined by Stellar Express’ easy win in the Group Three Bauhinia Sprint Trophy (1,000m).

The champion trainer was 15 winners behind the then leader Caspar Fownes going into New Year’s Day, but after four winners at the last two meetings, the gap has now eroded to 12 to leader Mark Newnham.

Size would never pay any attention to that fact, nor would he likely know he has never come this far behind to win a title, but there is an air of inevitability that his arrival at the top of the championship is coming.

Similar comments could apply to the win of Stellar Express, who looked like he had been shot out of a cannon from stall five by Andrea Atzeni to poach the coveted grandstand rail.

On a day where being at the front was a touch of gold dust, Atzeni was always cruising on the lead and by the time the $1.8 favourite Colourful King had extricated himself out of traffic and into the clear, the bird had flown.

“He seemed to leave nothing else to chance, he jumped cleanly and got to the front and just made one act of it,” Size said after Stellar Express beat Colourful King by three lengths.

“He’s done that before, when he gets some favours on this track down the outside he seems to keep running – he certainly enjoys it.

“The light weight is going to help, but he looks like a track specialist over the course and distance.

“Obviously they don’t programme a race too often for him, but he has to race to remain in condition so I’ll just take him wherever his rating allows him to be.

“We’ve eventually got going a little bit and we’re making some sort of respectable presence, so I just hope I can keep going.”

It was a sixth win in the Group Three feature for Size, following on from Grand Delight (2003), Amazing Kids (2017), Premiere (2018), Sight Success (2023) and Howdeepisyourlove (2025).

For Atzeni, it was a third Group Three triumph in Hong Kong, adding to wins on Taj Dragon in the 2024 Chinese Club Challenge Cup (1,400m) and Nimble Nimbus in the 2024 Centenary Vase (1,800m).

He will struggle to find a much easier winner all season, let alone in a Group race, and even he was stunned by how far clear he was in the closing stages without having to exert much effort.

“He’s obviously a horse that’s got a good record over the 1,000m straight. He was carrying a light weight and it was all about the start,” said Atzeni.

“Once he pinged up the gates and linked up with the horses on my outside, I knew I could get to the rail and once I managed to get to the fence, he travelled comfortably.

“I tried to hang onto him for as long as I could and when I let him down, he picked up good and when I looked up at the [big] screen, I couldn’t believe how far clear I was. I thought it was a good performance.”

Size’s day got off to the perfect start when Sight Hermoso kicked off a clean sweep of the races up the straight for the yard in the Class Four Tsam Chuk Wan Handicap (1,000m).

It was a second win from four starts from the promising galloper, who had to settle for a midfield trip but was given a pearler from jockey Brenton Avdulla, who managed to get onto the grandstand rail when making ground.

“He seems to really enjoy the 1,000m straight – that’s what he is doing well at the moment and he’s had every chance to win the race,” said Size.

“We’ll see what the programme is and how it is dated before we make plans. It’s hard to do well early in your preparation here, so it’s a good sign.”