Trainer David Hall praised the consistency of hardy galloper Victory Boys after the Trelawney Stud graduate won at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (17 May).

Victory Boys stayed on strongly to take the Class 3 Longchamp Racecourse Handicap (1800m), giving Australian jockey Sam Clipperton his 35th win of the term.

Victory Boys took 10 starts and a drop into Class 5 before winning his first Hong Kong race in April last year. However, at his 10 runs since, he has not missed a placing with four wins, four seconds and two thirds at both courses, and over 1650m, 1800m and 2200m.

However, Hall believes that Victory Boys has shown obvious signs of maturity over the past 13 months.

"It's been a great season for him, he finished off last year really well and he seems to have matured mentally now. He used to get very hot in the paddock, he certainly still gets hot by the time he gets to the gates but he's markedly better than he was," Hall said.

The trainer pointed to some strong form references for the Mastercraftsman five-year-old, including two horses with Group-class form now in the book.

"He keeps turning up, he's run into some really good horses too," Hall said. "He's run second to Packing Dragon and Dinozzo this season, for example, and we've seen what they've gone on to achieve. He really deserved another win, so it was great to see him get that."