John Moore hasn’t had four-year-old Circuit Glory in his yard very long but the gelding showed on Saturday that he might be ready to turn things around and get his career at Sha Tin back on track.

Circuit Glory raced as Tavidream in New Zealand, where he had an impressive record of seven starts for five wins and two seconds as a three-year-old.

Four of those wins came at his final four outings, winning from 1,500m all the way up to the Group Two Championship Stakes over 2,100m at Ellerslie.

So, Circuit Glory’s owners no doubt bought him for Hong Kong with the intention of making him a Derby horse.

The handicapper had not missed Circuit Glory’s formline and gave him a tough mark to start off, rated 87, but in his first four starts under Peter Ho Leung, Circuit Glory showed only vague glimpses of form.

His major problem was that he was intent on over-racing and wasting energy and wasn’t able to finish off any of his first four unplaced appearances.

A month ago, his owners made the decision to move yards with Circuit Glory, in an effort to get something better out of him, and the third to Ping Hai Star was an encouraging start.

The pace wasn’t particularly fast early and that meant Circuit Glory again took a strong hold for a fair part of the event, but he made a better fist of getting to the line this time, passing a couple of the leaders in the final stages.

Ruthven, Ping Hai Star push their claims for the Hong Kong Derby

It might be too late for Circuit Glory to become a Derby horse with the big race just weeks away and his keenness was again an indication that he is a work in progress.

That other well-known son of Tavistock in Hong Kong, 2015-16 Horse the Year Werther, has also had a tendency to race a little keen at times but Moore has got outstanding results from him.

And, if Moore can get Circuit Glory to calm down his act a bit more in his races, he might be able to turn this Tavistock into a more than useful galloper.