Pierre Ng Pang-chi made his breakthrough at Group level when Taj Dragon won the Group Three Chinese Club Challenge Cup (1,400m) at Sha Tin on New Year’s Day and another second-season trainer, Jamie Richards, is hoping it will be his turn to taste pattern-race success in Hong Kong on Sunday.

Richards has fired only two arrows at Group level since arriving in Hong Kong in 2022 and both were with Wellington, who finished third in the Group Two Jockey Club Sprint and the Group One Hong Kong Sprint this season.

While that multiple elite-level winner was inherited from the retiring Richard Gibson, for the first time this weekend Richards will chase Group glory with a horse who started his Hong Kong career in his stable.

Seasons Wit has risen from a mark of 63 in March to being on the cusp of a triple-figure rating after four wins and three seconds in his nine local races, and the four-year-old gets the opportunity to hand Richards his biggest win in the city in the Group Three Bauhinia Sprint Trophy (1,000m).

Runner-up on Sha Tin’s all-weather track on Boxing Day, Seasons Wit is making a quick turnaround with the trainer revealing a lack of opportunities is partly behind the decision to up him in class.

“It’s a pretty hot race and this is a bit of an experiment,” Richards said. “We were only going to trial him in the time he was waiting for the next race on the dirt anyway, so we thought we’d run around for a bit of prize money.

“He’s been going well and he was only very narrowly beaten the other day, so we thought we’d take a bit of a chance with him on Sunday.”

Seasons Wit has raced just once over the course and distance, finishing fourth at Class Three level on his second start, but Richards is keen to give him another shot on the straight track.

“There wasn’t a really suitable race for him for a little while and I was thinking at the back of my mind that I wanted to try him back at 1,000m down the straight,” Richards said.

“He’s had one run there before and he ran fourth. I think he’s a lot stronger and mature now.”

The only black mark on Seasons Wit’s card came when 11th over 1,200m at Happy Valley in November, but Richards is not expecting a repeat of that disappointment and gives his runner an outside shot at glory.

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“I don’t know what happened at Happy Valley two runs back, and he just had an off day,” the trainer said of Seasons Wit, who will carry just 115 pounds under Matthew Chadwick this weekend.

“He’s a very genuine horse and if he gets things go his way with no weight on his back, maybe he’s a bit of a chance. It’s a bit of a roll of the dice, but we thought we may as well have a throw at the stumps.”

To secure a first Group success, Seasons Wit will need to beat proven performers at this level, Victor The Winner and Super Wealthy, while Packing Treadmill and Invincible Sage – who completed a hat-trick over course and distance last month – head the list of improvers stepping up to this class for the first time.