Champion jockey Zac Purton gave Packing Hermod the tick of approval after the unbeaten galloper made a solid return at Monday’s Sha Tin trials.

A sensational winner of his two starts late last season, Packing Hermod led in the 1,200m trial on the dirt and wasn’t pushed out by Purton when running second to Roman Crown.

Francis Lui Kin-wai is eyeing a possible tilt at the four-year-old series with the son of Rubick, with the trainer declaring the excitement machine has improved since a short summer break.

“He trialled well,” Purton said.

“He’s a lightly framed horse, he doesn’t carry a lot of condition and he raced at the end of last season, so he was always going to come to hand pretty quickly.

“He’s been working that way as well, so it was no surprise to see him come out and trial like he did.”

Packing Hermod created an instant impression on debut at Happy Valley in June, storming home to score by two and a half lengths over 1,200m.

He backed that up at Sha Tin’s season finale the following month, helping Lui capture his first trainers’ championship with a three-length romp at the same trip.

“He’ll trial again before he races. He’s not going to race until the end of next month,” Purton said.

Quality gallopers Galaxy Patch and Helios Express were also in action in the same trial, finishing strongly late for fourth and fifth, respectively.

Trainer Pierre Ng Pang-chi was pleased with Galaxy Patch’s third trial ahead of his first-up target, the Group Two Sha Tin Trophy (1,600m) on October 13.

“We’ve just been trying to get him to relax in every trial. He’ll have one more trial on October 4 and after that, I think he’ll be ready,” Ng said.

Helios Express travelled comfortably under a hold from Hugh Bowman in his first public appearance since running eighth to Massive Sovereign in the Hong Kong Derby (2,000m) in March.

The John Size-trained gelding won the Classic Mile and Classic Cup (1,800m) last term and also shapes as a potential Sha Tin Trophy starter.

“I was happy. He looked well, it was the first time I’ve sat on him for quite some time, but he felt good,” Bowman said after Monday’s trial.

“He wasn’t out to break any records but considering it’s his first public outing for a long time, I thought it was a pretty forward trial. He’ll have natural improvement, obviously.”

Bowman was also aboard Size’s classy sprinter Howdeepisyourlove, who made late ground under little pressure for sixth in a 1,050m trial won by Alpha One on Monday.

“He was good, he actually found the 1050m a bit quick, which is unusual because he’s a pretty fast horse,” Bowman said. “He felt good though, went through the motions.”

Howdeepisyourlove ran third to boom sprinter Ka Ying Rising in the Group Two Sha Tin Vase (1,200m) and fifth behind Invincible Sage in the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1,200m) last season.