The final tranche of the Hong Kong season has brought many a good jockey undone in years gone by, but Du Plessis has fitted in brilliantly and has now racked up four winners in double quick time.

Du Plessis opened the bowling by leading throughout on Flying Colours for popular local horseman Derek Cruz in the opener for griffins, and predicts there's more to come for the New Zealand-bred two-year-old. He then kick-started David Hall's personal-best afternoon, with wins on 55-1 outsider Telecom Emperor and honest but unsound Jade Dancer (11-1) in the second and third events respectively, making it three winners from the first three races.

"It was just fantastic, a real thrill," Du Plessis said.

"I've set myself a goal of winning 10 races before the end of the season, and today has made that goal look a lot more achievable.

"It's been hard getting established, coming here at a stage of the season when all the relationships are well formed but I've been working hard and been fortunate to get some strong support from people like Derek and David, and also Peter Ng [Bik-kuen], who gave me my first winner at Happy Valley the other week."

Du Plessis revealed he has already applied for a licence for next season and after yesterday's treble should be almost "over the line" for re-selection. Du Plessis said the biggest surprise out of the opening race victory on Flying Colours was the gelding began on terms with his rivals.

"He has been quite badly away in both trials, so it was a real nice surprise that he got away so well," he said.

"I told the owners that whatever happened today, because he was still nice and round, they have a horse that is going to win them races.

"In the second race, David told me that the horse is not very good and he's going to need as good a ride as I can give him. But it was a pretty weak race, I thought, and my horse had a good run behind a reasonable speed, we took him to the outside in the straight and he just made it." Du Plessis continued: "It was a similar situation with Jade Dancer.

"He ran quite well behind Deminer, and that form seemed reasonably strong, and his fitness might have come on after that race, too. The way the race panned out, we got a lovely run and I guess it was an every-chance win."

Du Plessis is quite an international already. He's ridden in South Africa, Dubai, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, where he was champion jockey in 2006.

He's handled eight Group One winners - five in New Zealand and three in Singapore, and rides the minimum weight of 113 pounds without having to put up overweight.