Joao Moreira is looking beyond this weekend with both of his big race rides coming from just outside the top bracket ratings-wise, but the Brazilian is still his usual buoyant self going into Sunday's Group One double at Sha Tin.

The in-demand Moreira would have had the choice of at least three rides in the Hong Kong Classic Cup, but settled on stayer-in-the-making Redkirk Warrior after partnering Chris So Wai-yin's import to an impressive win over 1,600m on February 1 that took the horse's rating to 87.

Redkirk Warrior beat one of his key Classic Cup rivals, Contentment, that day and Moreira said the quality of the win was only part of the reason he had stuck with the four-year-old.

The runaway jockeys' championship leader said it was Sunday's step up to 1,800m, plus the possibility that the horse will be even better over 2,000m in next month's BMW Hong Kong Derby, that convinced him to take the ride over some higher-rated horses.

"I know it was only a mixed Class Two and Class Three last start, and this is a step up, but Redkirk Warrior beat some really nice horses last start, like Contentment," Moreira said.

"I think he will run a huge race, but whatever he does this time he will improve on it, I am sure of that, and that's part of the reason I went with him. I feel like he is a long-distance horse who will come into his own as the races get harder and we haven't seen his best yet. He is a progressive horse and I see a big future for him - he can stay but he also has an excellent turn of foot."

Similarly, Moreira probably could have ridden some higher-rated runners in the Chairman's Sprint Prize, but chose the 115-rated Smart Volatility after a string of consistent efforts in good company.

The clear top two for the second leg of the Hong Kong Speed Series appear to be Hong Kong Sprint winner Aerovelocity, and the horse he beat in that race, Peniaphobia, a last-start Group One winner. With those rides locked up by the two remaining members of the "big three jockeys", Zac Purton and Douglas Whyte, Moreira gets on Smart Volatility for the first time.

The Francis Lui Kin-wai-trained grey has not won for more than a year, but has not been far away at the top level either, coming into this race off a luckless third behind Peniaphobia in the Kent & Curwen Centenary Sprint Cup nearly three weeks ago.

"I've ridden him in his last two gallops and he has felt great," Moreira said. "He ran a good time in his work and I still had hold of him. He hasn't won for a while now but he has been right there with them, placing against good horses and he has been unlucky on a few of those occasions and probably could have won."