David Hall brought up the 700th winner of his Hong Kong career when Ka Ying Attack scored first-up at Sha Tin on Sunday, completing a double for the trainer after Kempes upset odds-on favorite Bustling City earlier on the card.
The two wins take Hall to eight for the season, leaving him equal third in the trainers' championship after 10 meetings.
Hall said the milestone was not something he dwelled on.
"Yeah, well, they come along or they don't come along, but it's not something you go to work every day thinking about, the numbers," he said. "But, 700 sounds good and 800 will sound better."
Ka Ying Attack has done his racing on the pace, but Hall and jockey Matthew Poon Ming-fai decided to ride him back on Sunday. The gelding returned 40 pounds heavier than his last start and was facing a tougher test.
"He's been on pace and he's had good draws and light weights. But today was obviously a bigger test for him," Hall said.
"He looked a bit stronger, more so than fat to me, but I just thought it was going to be a test for him to do some work early in the race.
"If he got caught wide, it was going to be really tough for him. And first-up, having all that pressure, I decided to take him back."
The change worked, and Hall gave credit to Poon.
"It's an easy decision to say it was the right one, but it was obviously a perfectly executed ride by Poon as well," he said. "So yeah, we discussed it. That's what we wanted to do.
"The horse is just flying. He's in his zone, isn't he? He finished off last season and started in the same form. So that was exciting. It was great."
Kempes had started the day for Hall by running down Bustling City, who started at 1.4 after rising sharply in the weights.
"It's always difficult for those horses when they go up so much in the weights, and we knew there was going to be a little bit of a different tempo today," Hall said. "On paper beforehand … It's hard to get overconfident.
"But we knew our horse would run very well and, you know, fortunately, it went our way."
Hall said Kempes would return to Conghua and although there are dirt options coming up later in the month at an All-Weather Track meeting on Wednesday October 28, the trainer said other stable runners are being aimed at that meeting.
"He's not just a dirt horse. He can run on the grass just as effectively, as we've seen," Hall said. "Now that he's got that win on the board, we'll just sort of have a look at the program and see how it all fits in for him.
"I think he's probably as good as we've had him since he's been in Hong Kong. It's taken a long time, but he's putting it together now and he's holding his condition well. He's a bit more manageable, and hopefully he can win again."
