He came agonisingly short of a first trainers’ championship win last season, but it’s fair to say Pierre Ng Pang-chi is back with a vengeance heading into the 2024-25 campaign.

After missing out on silverware in dramatic fashion at last season’s final meeting, the 41-year-old is itching to go one better as he heads into his third campaign in Hong Kong’s training ranks.

“I had a feeling at the beginning of last season we would have a good year and I have that same feeling again for this year,” Ng said.

“We had a brilliant season and we’re looking for an even better third season. It was very good but there was still lots to learn from. Hopefully we can build a stronger and better team.”

Ng led the race for championship glory for more than six months leading up to last season’s finale at Sha Tin, but was pipped by his former boss Francis Lui Kin-wai in the most dramatic fashion in the final race of the term.

Ng notched 69 wins from 88 meetings – one less than Lui – and he is determined to repeat his scintillating early-season form when the new campaign kicks off at Sha Tin on September 8.

“We found a pattern last season to have early winners and we’ll try and use that again,” Ng said. “It worked last year with the number of winners we had and we’ll be starting off really fast this season as well.

“We’ve been getting everything ready to run on the first day back and we have very good strength. There definitely should be more to come.”

Ng also broke through at Group level last term with Taj Dragon, Galaxy Patch and Mugen collecting Group Three honours.

Heading into the new campaign, Ng hopes he can continue to snare big-race success and has aspirations of a first victory at the top level.

“The aim for this season is just to win as many races as possible,” Ng said. “Hopefully we can get some more Group winners and we’ll have a good crack at trying to win a Group One.”

His first opportunity to land big-race success will come on September 29 when Mugen jets off to Japan to contest the Group One Sprinters Stakes (1,200m) at Nakayama racecourse.

The six-year-old finished his progressive season with a win in the Group Three Premier Cup (1,400m) and will be joined by the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained Victor The Winner in the Land of the Rising Sun.

“Every horse has been healthy, training well and trialling well, so I’m looking forward to the season and to the Japan trip with Mugen as well,” Ng said.

“He has been trialling well and he’ll have another one on Tuesday and one more before he goes to Japan.”

Mugen will bid to become the first Hong Kong-trained winner of the Sprinters Stakes since Ultra Fantasy in 2010 and Ng is confident his speedster has the ability to achieve that feat.

“He definitely has a good chance over there,” Ng said. “As we know, the Japanese sprinters are not as strong compared to Lord Kanaloa and the likes before, so he has a strong chance.”