The lack of a truly dominant player beforehand perhaps advertised there could be a surprise in the HK Derby of 2025, but a worldwide maiden wasn't on many bingo cards.
At almost 26/1, Cap Ferrat gave trainer Francis Lui a second Derby, top Australian jockey Craig Williams flew in for his first and, for the first time since Top Gain in 1978, the race was taken by a horse which had never previously won a race anywhere.
Cap Ferrat had G1 placings in his 3yo career in Australia with Chris Waller, but not so much as a minor win before landing one of the richest Derby events on earth at $USD 3.345 million total prizemoney.
The gelding had only run 3 times in Hong Kong and was fresh, keen and short of fitness in his lead-up in the Classic Cup, finishing ninth under  Williams, who had been approached to ride Cap Ferrat after Vincent Ho was injured in a fall in February.
Williams had ridden the horse in Australia and told Lui after the Classic Cup the horse would need plenty of work to have him fully fit for a Derby but a fitter, kinder Cap Ferrat appeared on Sunday and scrambled the win, after Williams used gate 2 to take all the short cuts then fend off a booming finish late from My Wish.
The winner's 88 rating on our scale puts him amongst the lower bracket of Derby wins, supporting a generally held view pre-race that it was not a vintage crop, with a very slow mid-race section making it difficult for horses running on, adding merit to the runner-up's effort. My Wish produced the fastest final 400m in any 2000m race at Sha Tin in the last 15 years to run to his usual 92 peak rating, beaten by gate 14, and he was the best of the 4yo series, winning one leg and second in the other two. The slow pace brought a few undone, including favourite Rubylot who overraced and didn't finish the race off.