Handled for the first time by Felix Coetzee, Warrior bounced straight to the front from barrier one in a trial over 1,050 metres and showed his rivals a clean set of plates, cruising home under a strong hold to score by three-quarters of a length.

It was vintage Warrior, with the son of O'Reilly beginning like a bullet and showing that same smooth, fluent action that had seen him remain unbeaten through his first three starts - all of them up the Sha Tin straight 1,000m course.

At his last outing, however, Warrior was unplaced over 1,200m at Happy Valley on April 2. But there's no doubt the run should be completely forgotten as the handsome four-year-old was a victim of his own inexperience.

Having never left the confines of Sha Tin and lacking experience at the tricky Valley circuit, not to mention his first time racing under lights, Warrior suffered stage fright.

He did not show his usual speed, was uncomfortable racing with horses on three sides and lost confidence taking a right-hand bend for the first time.

Back under familiar circumstances in an all-weather barrier trial, this win will have done wonders for Warrior's confidence and it should be the "real Warrior" that steps out next start, regardless of whether that is at 1,000m down the straight or 1,200m around the circle.

While Coetzee was given an arm chair ride on the John Size-trained speed machine, Chater Power did a good job to work home manfully for second in the excellent time of 60.6 seconds.

Chasing talented, free-running horses is never easy on any surface, so Chater Power's effort to reduce the margin to less than a length under a quiet Glen Boss ride was a commendable one.

A clue to the quality of this trial was the big spread of margins, with Super Pegasus (Douglas Whyte), a stablemate of Chater Power, finishing third but beaten three lengths, while Danzulu (Mark du Plessis) was another five lengths away in fourth place.

In the second trial, we saw evidence that two careers are heading in the right direction - the racing future of the Caspar Fownes-trained Deferential and the riding career of apprentice Vincent Ho Chak-yiu.

Ho covered ground on Deferential but there was little option for the youngster after starting from barrier 10. In the straight he was able to get Deferential to let down nicely and the chestnut stretched out well under his gentle urgings.

Deferential looks a promising galloper and the only thing he's required has been the patience of Fownes and owner Eddie Lau Jnr, of The Duke fame.

Now that Deferential is well into the second half of his three-year-old season, we should see him start to make substantial improvement and whatever he does this preparation, expect to see a better horse again once he returns next term as a four-year-old.