It’s been a touch over three years since Caspar Fownes celebrated the most recent of his four Hong Kong trainers’ premierships and the 57-year-old is confident he can again give things a shake this season.

Sixth last campaign with 51 winners – 19 behind the victorious Francis Lui Kin-wai – Fownes enters Sunday’s season opener at Sha Tin without a superstar in his stable but with a 68-strong team he believes can provide him with plenty of winners.

“I’m always ready to get back into it. It’s nice to have a break and freshen up. Now we’re looking forward to a good, strong season,” said Fownes, who lost Straight Arron to Ricky Yiu Poon-fai in July, meaning he doesn’t have a 100-rated galloper under his care.

“I’ll always make my presence felt. If you’re within striking range you can really knuckle down and see how it goes the last couple of months of the season. We’ll give it what we’ve got and I think I’m a chance to be very competitive.

“There’s a few young ones that are nice and there are a few PPs [private purchases] that will keep improving. Karma looks to have quite a bit of potential going forward and it will interesting to see what he does first up over 1,400m, but he’s going to be better suited as he gets up over longer.

“We will just feel our way and the cream will rise to the top. We always get a good one every couple of years and we’ll have to make it ourselves, like we normally do.”

Karma is one of Fownes’ six runners this weekend and the six-year-old will chase a hat-trick of victories when he steps out in the Class Two Tai Mo Shan Handicap (1,400m).

After reeling off consecutive mile successes on rain-affected ground to close out his 2023-24 campaign, Karma will no doubt enjoy any give in the ground as a result of Typhoon Yagi, which is expected to be closest to Hong Kong on Thursday night.

“It’s a nice race for him and he will certainly give us something and then strip fitter for it,” Fownes said of the son of Turn Me Loose, who will be ridden by Vincent Ho Chak-yiu from gate five of eight.

“Then we can get him over further and see how high he can take his rating. If there’s some rain around, it’ll be helpful.”

Fownes is also looking forward to seeing what Family Jewel can do in the second section of the Class Four Ma On Shan Handicap (1,400m) after fourths in his only two starts to date, while he considers Kaholo Angel a chance in the Class Three Sunset Peak Handicap (1,200m).

“Family Jewel is in good form. He had a couple of nice runs at the end of last season to put the writing on the wall. He’s also going to be better suited as he gets over further,” Fownes said.

“Then we’ve got Kaholo Angel – he’s quite progressive. It’s nice, we’ve got a few to work with and we’ll just start them off and they’ll tell us where they’re going to go after these races.”