Aussie trainer John Size had achieved almost everything possible during a stellar training career in Hong Kong, but the one milestone missing from his resume was a victory in one of the Hong Kong International Races, reports Racing Post HK. That changed in emphatic fashion on Sunday as Glorious Days, first-up for more than six months, produced a sensational performance to win the HK$20 million Longines Hong Kong Mile.

Glorious Days (Douglas Whyte) came down the outside to beat gallant leader Gold-Fun (Olivier Doleuze), who had shared the lead from the outset, with Packing Whiz (Brett Prebble) completing a Hong Kong trio in third.

Irish raider Gordon Lord Byron was the first visitor home in fourth, while star French mare Moonlight Cloud finished a flat sixth.

Size, beaming as the horse came back to scale, noted that the long wait for a success on Hong Kong international day had made the win of Glorious Days more satisfying.

"They've escaped me in the past, but when one comes along it makes it that little bit sweeter," he said.

Glorious Days last raced in early June, when he finished a disappointing 11th to Hong Kong Sprint winner Lord Kanaloa in the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo, but Size said he was confident the horse could produce his best despite his lack of race fitness.

"The horse is actually quite easy to train," he said. "At the start of the season he wasn't enjoying being in training, so we let him be until he showed he was ready.

"About six weeks ago, he was enjoying life again and he showed us he would be ready in time for today."

Jockey Douglas Whyte was quick to praise the training performance of Size.

"What can you say? He is a genius," Whyte said. "The horse had a good run, he settled well and I tried to build momentum on him and hope he would produce the turn of foot we all know he has."

Moonlight Cloud was disappointing in sixth, and trainer Freddy Head said there were a number of reasons why she may not have performed at her peak.

""It could have been the track or her lack of racing, or it could have been the travel - she has travelled twice and failed both times," he said.