According to trainer David Hall, Heroic Guru's name isn't at all fitting after a wayward display saw the "cowardly" miler nearly throw away victory as he ducked and dived on his way to the line.

Heroic Guru threw in a sidestep or two in the late stages of the 1,600m Class Four that gave favourite backers heart flutters before jockey Joao Moreira got the four-year-old back on the straight and narrow for his first local win.

"Well he isn't much of a hero - he is a bit of a coward actually," Hall said.

"We've seen it from him a bit before - once at Happy Valley, Douglas Whyte rode him and he was stuck on the inside of horses and he was all over the place. Today, the horse just got scared when Joao hit him and then he overreacted again when Joao tried to get him straight again."

It was Moreira's attempted correction after Heroic Guru's initial outward swerve that nearly brought the horse back on to eventual runner-up Triumphant Dragon on his inside.

"What a horse, man, he really gave me a hard time," Moreira said. "I gave him one hit and he went right and I pulled him back straight, then I gave him another hit with the whip and this time he went left.

"I was very lucky to be able to bring him back so he didn't touch the one on his inside."

The lack of contact didn't stop Triumphant Dragon's rider Gerald Mosse lodging an objection, which was deemed frivolous by stewards, who fined the Frenchman HK$5,000 for his trouble.

Heroic Guru ended up veering towards the outside rail in the closing stages, reducing his winning margin, and Moreira said there was some obvious upside with the New Zealand import.

"Clearly he has some room for improvement," Moreira said. "He should have won easier because I had to keep correcting him, stopping his momentum. Next season he will be better and I think he will be stronger. He can still develop physically and mentally."

Moreira and Hall have formed a potent partnership this season, with Heroic Guru's win the pair's ninth from just 27 starts for a strike rate of 33 per cent.

"We haven't combined all that often but David's horses do seem to run very well when we do," Moreira said.

The Magic Man took his own astronomical win tally to 139 with a four-timer ahead of a two-meeting suspension that begins with Wednesday's public holiday meeting at Sha Tin.

Technically, Heroic Guru's win - Moreira's first for the day - also made the Brazilian's first jockeys' championship a certainty as he moved to a 47-win lead with 47 races remaining in the season at that point.