James McDonald enjoyed a wonderful return to the Hong Kong racing scene at Sha Tin on Sunday, notching wins with his first ride and in the day’s main event.

Only hours after arriving in Hong Kong to start his five-week stint, Kiwi superstar McDonald was victorious on John Size’s undefeated three-year-old sprinter, Wunderbar, in the Class Four Chevalier Lifts & Escalators Handicap (1,000m) and Tony Cruz’s The Golden Scenery in the Class One Chevalier Cup (1,600m).

Whereas McDonald rode Wunderbar as if he was the best horse in the Chevalier Lifts & Escalators Handicap, exposing the $1.65 favourite to daylight throughout a race he won by three-quarters of a length from Flying Dragon, the jockey employed different tactics aboard $16.4 roughie The Golden Scenery in the Chevalier Cup.

Mindful The Golden Scenery had never raced beyond 1,400m previously – each of the six-year-old’s past 25 starts had been over Sha Tin’s seven furlongs – McDonald hugged the fence behind front-running Telecom Fighters in the feature.

The Chevalier Cup’s slow tempo – the field turned for home after the leader covered the first 1,200m more than eight-tenths of a second outside standard – and The Golden Scenery’s gun run with cover along the rail allowed McDonald to conserve his mount’s energy while travelling in a forward position on a track favouring those gallopers near to the front.

Cruz, Hong Kong’s greatest home-grown jockey, was fulsome in his praise of McDonald’s Chevalier Cup-winning steer on the Australia-bred son of Deep Field and Saga’s Gift, neither of whom won beyond 1,200m.

“James rode a perfect race,” Cruz said following The Golden Scenery’s seventh career success, the past five of which have occurred in Hong Kong.

“He’s by Deep Field, and I was thinking, ‘Don’t tell me this horse, by Deep Field, needs a mile’. I thought, ‘Why not give it a shot?’ and I put James on. We hoped for the best result, and that’s what happened. We took a gamble, we got the best jockey on, and we got a good result. That’s how we work.”

McDonald acknowledged everything in the Chevalier Cup benefited The Golden Scenery, who beat fast-finishing Atullibigeal by a short head, with Happy Together in third place.

“It wasn’t a genuinely run mile,” McDonald said. “It was a sedate pace that enabled him to get a good position up on the speed, which was favourable, and get in by the skin of his teeth.

“It was great to get on the board, especially so early on a progressive horse in Wunderbar – he was fantastic up the straight – and then later in the day to win the feature. A perfect start, really.”

Apart from flying to Perth to honour his long-standing commitment to ride Annabel Neasham’s Zaaki in the elite-level Northerly Stakes (1,800m) on the eve of the Hong Kong International Races, McDonald will be in the city until New Year’s Day, accompanied by his partner, retired Group One-winning rider Katelyn, and their baby daughter, Evie.

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McDonald explained he jumped at his second stint as a club jockey 11 years on from his first – he rode at four of the final five meetings of the 2011-12 season – but could not wait to get a good night’s sleep after his crazy Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“Originally, I was coming here for two weeks for the [International Jockeys’ Championship] and the international races, then the club afforded me an opportunity to come earlier and stay after, which was perfect timing for Katelyn and me,” he said.

“I slept well on the plane, but when we got to the hotel, our one-year-old girl didn’t want to have a rest. She was like that from four o’clock in the morning. I rode on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. It’s been a long three days.”