"He seems like something special," said winning rider Joao Moreira, after Rapper Dragon had dashed away to win the 1600 metre feature eased down by two lengths as favourite.
"I was always comfortable, all the way through the race.
"When John asked me to ride him forward and race in the top five I was a bit surprised, but the way he jumps out he was always going to put himself where he was."
And after bagging the first leg of Hong Kong's three-race Four-Year-Old Classic Series, Rapper Dragon will head to next month's Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) before attempting to stretch his stamina to a mile and a quarter in the BMW Hong Kong Derby in mid-March.
"The way he won today, you wouldn't doubt that he would step up to 1800m and perform at his top level, and I also believe he will make it over 2000 metres," Moreira said.
The winning time was 1m 34.98s with Rapper Dragon's final 400m clocked at a race-fastest 22.03s.
"This is a great horse for the stable and a great win for Hong Kong," trainer John Moore said. "The way he ran today you'd have to say he's 100 percent fit so the idea now is to keep him at this level for the next two races, culminating in the Hong Kong Derby.
"I'd been telling the press all week that this is the cleanest-winded horse I've had in the stable for donkey's years and from that point of view he's very easy to get fit. His trial was very good and his work coming into the race today was very good. I was tipping him on top and he's come out and won by two lengths, which did surprise me a little bit because I didn't think he'd win that easily!"
Rapper Dragon's win was a fourth in the race for Moore (2014 Able Friend, 2006 Sunny Sing, 2004 Tiber).
Bred by the late Henry Cojuangco at Gooree Stud, Rapper Dragon joined the John Moore stable after beginning his career with Gai Waterhouse.
Rapper Dragon showed good ability in a five start juvenile campaign for Waterhouse that yielded a win at Wyong and seconds in the Group I ATC Champagne Stakes to Pasadena Girl and Group III ATC Schweppervescence Quality to Takedown.
Rapper Dragon has the overall record of six wins and three placings from 14 starts.
A half-brother to stakes-placed Swing Vote, he is the best of three winners
from Danehill Dancer (IRE) mare Swing Dance, a sibling to Group I winner Amanpour
and stakes-winners Turf Express and Sports Edition.Swing Dance was sold in the dispersal of Henry Cojuangco's stock at the 2015 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale when bought by Michael Wallace Bloodstock for $360,000.
She is now at Newgate Farm, who sold her current yearling, a colt by Congrats (USA) at Magic Millions for $110,000 to KS Research.
Swing Dance produced a stunning colt by Deep Field last spring and is now in foal to Rapper Dragon's Darley based sire Street Boss.
