From counting his blessings for escaping a nasty injury two months ago to relishing the spotlight after riding three winners at Sha Tin for the first time, it's fair to say it was hard to wipe the smile off Angus Chung Yik-lai's face yesterday.

The 28-year-old, who won last year's Tony Cruz Award for the best-performing homegrown jockey, was left soaking up the attention from a media scrum after he celebrated success aboard Parents' Love, Gustosisimo and Divano.

Angus Chung rides Parents' Love for the first of his three winners of the day.

But, with a grin on his face, he didn't seem to mind, especially considering it was only a month since his return to the saddle following a horror fall at Sha Tin that left him with a fractured cheekbone.

"It's been a great day," Chung told The Standard. "The first couple of meetings after my injury I was really worried, to be honest. But then I rode my first winner since I returned and bang, all those feelings of worry were gone.

"People can always try and help to build your confidence back up after an injury but there's only one thing that really builds it and that's riding winners.

"Now, I'm as hungry as ever and things are going well so I'm very happy. Hopefully it can continue."

Chung illustrated that persistence is a key attribute needed to succeed as a jockey in the cut-throat world of Hong Kong racing when he recorded his first Class 1 victory aboard the Francis Lui Kin-wai-trained Divano.

Angus Chung, left, with Divano trainer Francis Lui.

Chung had not ridden Lui's four-year-old until yesterday's 1,400-meter race and he ensured the owner, Man Chen-chun, and his faith were handsomely rewarded with an impressive win from four pounds out of the handicap.

The young jockey rode Tony Cruz's All Are Mine to success for the same owner on the Sha Tin dirt last season and he finally got a chance to ride Divano after visiting jockeys Blake Shinn, Tom Marquand and Ryan Moore partnered the gelding on his past three starts.

"I know the owner pretty well and I've ridden winners for him before, so I always ask him if I could ride this horse," Chung said. "Ryan Moore rode him last time so I thought I'd try and ask him if I could ride him for today's race and he said yes, so to win on him is just fantastic and I have to thank him and Francis for letting me on."

Angus Chung's second winner of the day aboard Gustosisimo.

Chung collected his Class 1 win aboard Divano and his Class 2 success on Gustosisimo in a similar fashion, tracking an honest early pace before taking over in the closing stages.

Parents' Love used his early pace to assume the lead and made all on his first start at Sha Tin since the opening day of the season in September.

Yesterday's exertions, which included an early wake-up for trackwork at 6am, took Chung to 15 wins for the season after 62 meetings.

(Jack Dawling)

Comeback kid