Contentment made the most of Able Friend's absence in the Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy with an authoritative win as last season's four-year-old form continued to stack up and a couple of returning stars made eye-catching returns.

With Able Friend contesting the sprint feature, Contentment was gifted an opportunity at a mile with 120 pounds and justified favouritism in the Group Two, holding off this year's Classic Mile winner Beauty Only with veteran Military Attack hitting the line hard behind them in third.

GALLERY: Kenneth Chan's photos of all races at the Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy raceday on Sunday.

Winning jockey Joao Moreira was faced with the challenge of jumping from barrier 11 but, encouraged by trainer John Size's pre-race speed map, he deployed Contentment's gate speed to take a spot outside the lead and controlled the tempo, holding on for a three-quarter length victory.

"As always, John summed up the situation perfectly," Moreira said. "We had to go forward and get that spot or we would have been in trouble. After that, what impressed me most was that way he was able to relax. I had to push him to get where I did, but once I got there he just dropped the bit and enjoyed himself throughout the race. When he hit the front he just started to look around, so maybe he could have won by a little further, but he is such a nice horse and he has been improving each time he goes to the races.

"He has such a bright future here, I think John has such a versatile horse on his hands - he won well over 1,400m, he loves the mile and he will take to 1,800m like a child eating a sweet. He might even handle 2,000m the way he handled that race today."

The softly spoken Size has never hidden his opinion that Contentment has Group One ability and yesterday's success, the horse's fourth in a row, was another step forward.

"The Jockey Club Mile will be next and then the international mile in December," he said after Contentment put his rating above 120 and took his record to an impressive eight from 11.

"He has always shown me that he was a very good horse, from the first day that he walked into the stable. I've made no secret of the fact that I thought he was a good horse before he raced. He always did everything correctly - he's always presented like a good horse."

Tony Cruz's four-year-old Beauty Only was game in defeat, and his jockey Neil Callan would have also been pleased with the way top-weighted stablemate Blazing Speed found the line in sixth first-up.

"That was a big run," Callan said of Beauty Only. "I think the winner had the run of the race, and by the time I got up and running I had six lengths to make up."

Also running well from the 2015 Hong Kong Derby class was Richard Gibson-trained Giant Treasure, who had no luck from barrier 14 but finished off well for fifth, just behind another Cruz runner, Beauty Flame.