Australian jockey Ethan Brown celebrated a red-letter day with his first Hong Kong treble on Saturday, while Harry Bentley’s season is likely over after suffering a fractured forearm in a nasty fall at Sha Tin.

Six days after notching his first Sha Tin victory, Brown piloted home Country Dancer and Endued for champion trainer John Size and the David Hall-trained Prestige Hall.

“It’s unreal, it hasn’t sunk in yet. I thought I came here with a good book of rides and often, when that’s the case, you tend to go average, but today’s been great,” Brown said.

“It feels great. It took me a while to get the monkey off the back here [at Sha Tin] but to come back the following week and knock a couple over means a lot.

“I’m getting very good support and it feels like things are starting to clear up. I’m getting the hang of the racing here and it’s probably proven that the last couple of races, but the main thing is getting on the right horses and getting the right support from the right trainers.”

The 11-time Group One winner has now ridden six winners during his three-month stint in the city, and was thrilled to be able to score for fellow Australian Size.

“As soon as I got off [Country Dancer], I said ‘I’ve always wanted to ride a winner for you’ and I couldn’t be happier to do it for him today. It was a good feeling, very honourable,” Brown said.

Bentley was taken to Union Hospital on Saturday night after taking a nasty tumble from Smiling Falcon in race six when the son of Darci Brahma sustained a leg injury at the 950m.

Jockey Club veterinarians immediately treated Smiling Falcon at the scene but he could not be saved.

Elsewhere on Saturday’s card, Francis Lui Kin-wai joined Brown with a three-timer courtesy of Meaningful Dragon, Superb Spirit and Baby Sakura.

Superb Spirit made it back-to-back wins with a comfortable triumph in the Class Four Anser Handicap (1,200m) under champion jockey Zac Purton.

Drawn next to Island Buddy, Purton was able to drop straight on the fast beginner’s heels before being shuffled one spot further back when Lean Flyer took up the lead. A run appeared around the 300m for the heavily-backed favourite, who went straight through the gap and was able to win easily by a length and a quarter over the ultra-consistent Lucrative Eight.

“He obviously drew the right gate [in barrier two] to get the right run, he was bottled up a little bit and had to deal a little bit with what was going on and poke his head through and when he let go, he let go nicely,” Purton said.

Lui is buoyed to have such an exciting prospect on his hands, and is looking forward to a tilt at the four-year-old Classic Series next year.

“He’s a good horse – he has a lot of potential. He’s only a three-year-old and has only had a few runs; he looks like he keeps improving. I think he’ll have a break now, he’s a four-year-old series horse. Zac said he has a lot of potential, he said if he can handle the further distance, I’m sure he has a good chance of winning more races,” Lui said.

Baby Sakura improved his record to three wins from six starts when claiming the Class Three Owl Handicap (1,400m), keeping the faintest of hopes alive in the trainers’ championship. Beautifully ridden by Vincent Ho Chak-yiu, he was positioned in the box seat before probing for a gap and driving through to score by three-quarters of a length over Super Express

The first leg of Lui’s treble came courtesy of Meaningful Dragon in the Class Four Swan Handicap (1,400m), securing his third career win and second for the season. Working forward to sit outside the leader, James Orman was able to head off Voyage Boss to take over and hold on from the late charge of heavily backed favourite Gorgeous Victory by a short head.

Superb Spirit capped a double for Purton after he won earlier on Dennis Yip Chor-hong’s Mega Captain, while David Hayes chimed in with a brace of his own with Soleil Fighter and exciting debutant Jedi Spurs.

Soleil Fighter took out the Class Two Peacock Handicap (1,600m), leading all the way under a well-rated ride by apprentice Nichola Yuen Hang-yiu, who wound up the sectionals throughout and kicked strongly to score by half a length over Beauty Alliance.

“I asked Nichola to let the horse run today and she did a very good job. This is a good horse, he’s a Happy Valley champion, and now he’s winning at Sha Tin – I wish I had 10 of them,” Hayes said.

Hayes will now set the Sea The Moon gelding for the Class One race over the mile on July 12 at Sha Tin.

“That’s the race we targeted. If he ran poorly today, he was going on holiday, but I think I’ll give him one more because he’s in good form – and I’ll leave Nichola on and maybe he can do it again,” Hayes said.

Jedi Spurs looked to be easily one of the best Griffins to date when he brought his trial form to race day, thrashing the opposition by four and a half lengths – hard held and in fast time – in the Sunbird Plate (1,000m) under Brenton Avdulla.

“He’s done everything so easily in his life and to run that time, in these conditions – he might be very good. You couldn’t do a better debut than that. The opposition weren’t super, but the time was there and the margin he won by excites me,” Hayes said.

“If it was dry, the time wouldn’t have surprised me, but on wet … he went across the track beautifully.”

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