DESIGNS On Rome rewarded his legions of fans in Hong Kong and Ireland with his second win in the Group 1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday, and in the process credited his trainer John Moore with his 11th win in the feature race.

“I’m thrilled. He’s repeated [the win] and he’s done it in fine style,” said Moore. “He’s so talented, he’s got to be number one. Of my other Gold Cup winners, Viva Pataca, was good, but the way this horse does it, coming from last, right around the field and winning – he’s just an equine champion. He’s very exciting to watch and for that reason I’ll put him on top.”

Designs On Rome made his trademark challenge for glory with four furlongs left to race, having been three lengths or so adrift of the field until then. Tommy Berry, the first to use this tactic on the six-year-old, was in the saddle for the first time in nearly two years. The pair took the lead inside the final furlong and ran on for a half-length win over stablemate Helene Happy Star, with Military Attack in third. All three were bred in Ireland.

This was Berry’s fifth win from eight starts on Designs On Rome. “He feels the same as when I rode him in the past,” said the Australian who was ending a winless spell for the gelding since he triumphed in the same race 12 months earlier.

The Holy Roman Emperor gelding underwent surgery to both forelegs last May. Berry explained: “Every trainer has their concerns after surgery – I’ve had arthroscopic surgery and I can’t bowl a cricket ball anymore! It’s hard, to think that he may not come back the same horse, but the operation went great, his joints are still tight, we never lost a day with him; it took time to get him back in the coat.

The best

“He’s the best. He’s not travelling anywhere,” Moore added. “He’ll go into the AP QEII Cup at the end of April - then we’ll just look after him.”

The Australian-bred Contentment, a five-year-old son of Hussonet, made his Group 1 breakthrough with a brilliant win in the HK$10 million Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup over seven furlongs. The victory had jockey Brett Prebble whooping with delight. It was his first time on the John Size-trained gelding and the Australian later revealed that he had wanted the ride for some time.

“I’ve been following him around for a couple of years now, hoping to one day put my leg over on him; he’s a high-class galloper,” Prebble said. “I gave him a trial last week and I came here very confident.”

Stalking the leader Beauty Flame throughout, the pair matched strides from the top of the straight until a furling out when Contentment drew away for a length and three-quarters victory.

Four necks separated the next quartet past the post, Beauty Only denying the favourite Gold-Fun the third spot.

Both the winning rider and trainer were fulsome in their praise for the winner. “He showed a great turn of foot and when he got there he actually waited – he had more underneath him,” said Prebble. “He’s put his hand up as the next best thing!”

John Size added: “He loves his training and he loves being in work. He seems to thrive on that – most good horses do things like that correctly. He takes his racing well. He has a lovely temperament, he’s enthusiastic to do his best all the time and he deserved, and looked likely, to win a Group 1 one day and he’s done it. We’ll go towards the Champions Mile now and then see if there’s anything left for him, but there’s not much to do now; the season’s nearly over for him.”