Victor The Winner could finish his brilliant first season among Group company after digging deep to post his fifth win at start seven in Saturday’s Class Two Nurturing Talent Handicap (1,200m) at Sha Tin.

The impressive four-year-old will find himself on a rating around 100 after his latest success and trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing put June 4’s Group Three Sha Tin Vase (1,200m) on the table for a galloper he is still convinced needs an extended break between races.

“He needs more rest, actually. [Jockey Zac Purton] said he was a bit tired the last 50m. Not just four weeks – he needs seven or eight weeks this horse. He’s not a big horse. He needs more time to recover and to be more powerful. But he’s OK, he’s obviously got talent,” Shum said of a galloper who was returning 27 days after his March 19 success.

“He might have one more race [this season] in the Group Three. We’ll see how he recovers, and we’ll decide what to do.”

While Victor The Winner continued his upwards trajectory, David Hayes confirmed he is likely to lower his sights with Nervous Witness after saying on Friday the speedster would need to either win the Nurturing Talent Handicap or go very close to push onto the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1,200m) on April 30.

Slow away under Hugh Bowman, Nervous Witness travelled just off the speed rather than in his customary lead role. After the five-year-old faded into 11th, Hayes confirmed he is “highly unlikely” to head to his first Group One test and may also make his way to the Sha Tin Vase.

Victor The Winner’s success was the final leg of a treble for Purton, who urged Shum to run the speedster on Saturday rather than save him for a race next month.

After finding the front from barrier nine, Purton controlled the race with a first 800m just outside standard time and Victor The Winner had enough left to give when asked by his jockey inside the final 250m to see off fast-finishing second favourite Howdeepisyourlove by half a length.

“Very good effort. Obviously, up in weight a little bit today, but fortunately we were able to get away clean and control the race,” said the star Australian, who also had three seconds on Saturday.

“We had a little bit of pressure put on me too far from home, so I was trying to cuddle him, and to be fair, he was out on his feet the last 50-75m.

“For him to back up as quickly as he as and to perform like that again, it’s good, but we’ll now give him a bit more time until the next race.”

Joining Victor The Winner in Purton’s treble were the progressive Golden Express and Benno Yung Tin-pang’s Australian import Hyper Dragon Ball, who broke his Hong Kong maiden at start five in the Class Three Healthy Community Handicap (1,400m) after two wins from seven starts in New South Wales.

Golden Express won for the second time on the bounce in the Class Three Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Trophy (1,200m) and will now graduate to Class Two.

“He only had one race before he got here, so I suppose he’s done pretty well,” said trainer John Size of Golden Express, who won his only Australian start at Doomben in June last year.

“He looks like he’s better than Class Three. The heavy weight didn’t impede his progress, so we’ll just soldier on.”