From MURRAY BELL in HK Racing PostCaspar Fownes describes himself as a competitive person by nature, but the energy and focus he put into landing his second trainers' premiership was real eye-of-the-tiger stuff. Traditionally, the trainer who heads into May on top of the trainers' table is crowned champion on the final day. Fownes tipped that tradition on its head this season, giving John Moore a 15-win start on May 6 and getting up to beat him by three.At a time of the season when the handicap

From MURRAY BELL in HK Racing Post

Caspar Fownes describes himself as a competitive person by nature, but the energy and focus he put into landing his second trainers' premiership was real eye-of-the-tiger stuff. Traditionally, the trainer who heads into May on top of the trainers' table is crowned champion on the final day. Fownes tipped that tradition on its head this season, giving John Moore a 15-win start on May 6 and getting up to beat him by three.

At a time of the season when the handicap system starts to slow down the trainers at the top of the table, Fownes hit the turbo-charger for the final two months, preparing 25 winners across the last 14 meetings. When he won his first trainers' title from Paul O'Sullivan two years ago, the margin was nine wins and his 61 winners was a personal best. He has therefore added seven winners to his own PB (an improvement in performance of 11.5 per cent) and matched the figure John Size established in landing the 2008 premiership.

Although renowned for being the king of Happy Valley, a feature of Fownes' season was that he actually trained more winners at Sha Tin - 37, compared to 31 at the city course. The handicap system is often given as the reason for a "premiership hangover", making it hard for a trainer to win back-to-back titles because many horses in the yard have been moved higher up the ratings. But it hasn't seemed to slow Fownes down too much, as he followed up his first title with an honourable second to Size last term and now scores again.

Although he is a charismatic leader and undoubtedly the captain of his ship, Fownes generously deflects huge amounts of credit further down the line. He talks warmly about his assistant trainer, Chris So Wai-yin, and also of the loyalty of his staff, many of whom have been with him from the beginning and a number who go back to the days when Caspar's father, Lawrie, was the maestro.