Classic Jewellery has always been at his best fresh over the Happy Valley 1,650m and a change of trainer shouldn't stop that being the key to the six-year-old being hard to beat in the Hong Kong Country Club Challenge Cup tonight, reports HK Racing Post.
Formerly with John Size, Classic Jewellery (Douglas Whyte) is now in the David Hall yard and finished last season with some disappointing efforts in May and June.
But fresh is the time to catch the son of O'Reilly and his previous first-up efforts brought a win and three seconds from six attempts and he has also proved quite adept over the extended Valley mile in the past.
Classic Jewellery's first trial for Hall last month didn't give a lot of encouragement that he would soon be making a comeback, but his second trial on October 24 was better and some of his work since has had the look of a horse ready to take to the races.
Notably, Whyte has a considerable past history with Classic Jewellery, has been on in both barrier trials and an important gallop and he takes his place on the gelding tonight.
The pace in tonight's race looks to be Smart Ball (Matthew Chadwick) and Regency King working across from the outside half of the field. Classic Jewellery should comfortably clear Good Choice (Joao Moreira) and Amazingly drawn under him, and find his way into the box seat run.
A spot in the first few runners has been gold since Happy Valley re-opened and don't expect that to be any different with the rail coming back to the A position, so a box seat run should be ideal.
Consistent Good Choice looks a prominent danger sitting on the back of Classic Jewellery in the run, while Smart Ball returns to the scene of his only victory and he has to be well respected with a relatively light weight in what is not the toughest Class Three we'll see this season.