Trained by Danny Shum and ridden by Chad Schofield, Supreme Profit drew clear
to win the 1800 metre contest by a length, his ninth win from 36 starts."When the pace was so slow, it just didn't suit me at all." Schofield said. "I was three pairs back and it was going to be a sit and sprint which he wouldn't have enjoyed, so I let him stride with the light weight and stride he did.
"I know he stays so well, he obviously won over 2000m before, so I knew he would have stayed all day. I kept him rolling the whole way, from the 1000m pretty much, and with the light weight they couldn't pick him up. If the race had been another 200 metres I still think he wins, so it was a really strong effort."
Shum said it had not been a pre-conceived idea to take off early, but that it could have been inspired by Supreme Profit's victory under apprentice Kei Chiong in Class 3 in May.
"It was solely Chad's decision," he said. "I just told him before the race to study the race videos of the horse's past wins, as we thought the horse would be competitive in this race. Probably, he would have seen how Kei Chiong won on the horse last season because in that race, Kei also made an early move mid-race."
The trainer, who landed his first Group victory since Little Bridge won the G1 King's Stand Stakes (1000m) at Royal Ascot in June 2012, said that Supreme Profit's progress this season had surprised even him.
"If you asked me early this season what I would have expected from this horse, I would have said he could win one race," Shum said.
"But today, he has scored win three, so it was a bit of a surprise to me. Mark (Richards) was obviously right, he just needed time to mature."
A $320,000 Magic Millions purchase from the Coolmore draft for the Hong Kong
Jockey Club, Supreme Profit was purchased at the Gold Coast by Hong Kong
International Sale Executive Manager Mark Richards."That's sensational!" said a beaming Richards. "I was involved in buying Pleasure Gains with Mark Player, we were both in Deauville then, and he went on to win the January Cup, but this is the first on my own, and I'm chuffed."
The horse arrived at Sha Tin in late 2012, going through the first session of the then twice-yearly Hong Kong International Sale in the 2012/13 season.
"I still remember buying him – he was just a real big, backward horse that was always going to need time, but I was taken by him," Richards said.
"You can still see it now, he's got a huge constitution to him, he always carries a fair amount of condition but he's also got his heart in the right place."
Going through the ring as Lot 1 in the December 2012 Hong Kong International Sale, the bay was knocked down to Shum's long-term client William Yem for HK$3.3 million. But even after the horse joined the Shum yard, it was an uphill battle to get him to the races.
"Full credit to Danny, it's been quite some training performance," said Richards. "Within four weeks of him being sold here in 2012, he had an operation on a twisted gut, and horses sometimes don't come back from that. This horse did though, and now he seems to thrive on racing."
Supreme Profit is a sibling to this season's Group II placed three year-old Kaching and stakes-placed Zombie Dancer.
He is one of four winners from stakes-placed Desert Sun (GB) mare Sun Song, a three-quarter sister-in-blood to Sunline, who won 32 races, 13 of them at Group I level including the HK International Mile.
Sun Song produced a filly by Dissident last spring and was then covered by So You Think.
Supreme Profit is the 112th stakes-winner for now retired champion sire Encosta de Lago.
