If the impact of Derek Leung Ka-chun’s 2017 Group One Hong Kong Mile success aboard Beauty Generation is anything to go by, the 35-year-old jockey has about five months to strike while the iron is hot after his second win at the elite-level at Sha Tin on Sunday.

After that success with Beauty Generation, Leung said the victory “wasn’t just a big win for me, but for all the local jockeys”.

He went onto outline how difficult it was for local jockeys to get live big-race chances, saying “we have to prove that we are reliable and can be trusted”.

For Leung, it turned out he was able to show enough reliability and trustworthiness to last him about five months among Hong Kong’s owners and trainers.

Following Beauty Generation’s Mile win, Leung was afforded three more Group One opportunities aboard gallopers at single-figure prices in that same season – once aboard Beauty Generation and twice aboard Pingwu Spark.

Unfortunately for Leung, he wasn’t able to convert any of those rides into additional elite-level success and he’d been virtually in the big-race wilderness until Sunday.

While he’s had 26 rides at the top level since his Group One Champions Mile sixth aboard Pingwu Spark in April 2018, not one of them started single digits in betting.

That didn’t matter at Sha Tin on Sunday, though, with Leung producing a perfectly judged front-running ride to snare the Group One Centenary Sprint Cup (1,200m) aboard $38 outsider Victor The Winner.

Leung only picked up the ride on Victor The Winner – who was one of only two horses to defeat Lucky Sweynesse in 2023 – because of Vincent Ho Chak-yiu’s injury.

Unless you’re Ho, who has reeled off 13 Group One wins in the space of four years thanks largely to his association with Golden Sixty, it’s these sorts of opportunities home-grown Hongkongers have to pounce on when they come.

“It’s still the same situation [as back in 2017]. It’s never easy in this game – you just have to wait for the opportunity and be ready to grab it,” Leung said.

With two Tony Cruz Awards and 446 Hong Kong winners to his name, Leung boasts a record most local jockeys could only dream of, and he is hopeful he can parlay his success with Victor The Winner into further opportunities.

“We always try to get on the good horses at the right time and 100 per cent, I’m sure it will help a lot,” he said.

“Winning these big races is never easy and hopefully it gives people more confidence in me. It should be a bit easier to get not just Group-race rides but hopefully rides in other races too.”

At a time when Hong Kong’s recent Group One contests have been dominated by so few horses, it would be a huge result if, like 2017, Leung found himself aboard three single-figure Group One chances between now and the end of the season.

Leung orchestrates Group One boilover as Victor The Winner upstages Sweynesse

It looks unlikely, of course, but maybe Leung has timed his strike nicely. Ten-time Group One winner Golden Sixty is very close to the end and Lucky Sweynesse’s dominance of the sprint division was loosened considerably on Sunday.

Before Sunday’s race, you have to go right back to Stronger’s victory in the 2022 edition of the Centenary Sprint Cup to find a Group One sprint race in Hong Kong not won by either Wellington or Lucky Sweynesse.

If nothing else, Leung has the ride for Victor The Winner’s next start, which could well come in March’s Group One Takamatsunomiya Kinen (1,200m) in Japan. He certainly couldn’t have said that with any confidence a week ago.