Matthew Poon went into Wednesday night's eight-race Happy Valley card hunting for one win to graduate from the apprentice ranks and the rider wasted no time snaring it.

“I was confident that I could do things right but I wasn’t confident I could get a winner,” Poon said after Glory Star carried him to the magic 70-win mark in the opener.

The rider took just 19 months to reach the benchmark, having opened his account aboard Happy Meteor on his first race-day at Sha Tin in March 2017. Only Matthew Chadwick has graduated in a shorter time.

Poon enjoyed a successful overseas placement in South Australia, claiming the champion apprentice title there before being called back to his home city to advance his career under the tutelage of trainer David Hall.

“I suppose he came here with a big reputation and he probably had the best preparation out of all of (the local apprentices),” Hall said.

Apprentice jockey Matthew Poon reaches the graduation benchmark by claiming his 70th win in Hong Kong aboard the Jimmy Ting-trained Glory Star (No. 3) in Race 1, the Class 5 Starlit Knight Handicap (1650m), picture Hong Kong Jockey Club

But for all of that, things have not always gone smoothly for the Hong Kong Apprentice Jockeys’ School student, who was injured just two races after Happy Meteor’s win at his step-out race meeting. 

He started a three-day suspension after this evening’s fixture and has another two-meeting spell on the sidelines coming up later in November. Suspensions caused Poon some difficulties last term, too.

“Last year I had a little bit of a tough time because I had too many careless riding bans and I went a while without a winner. That had never happened to me before, so I felt a lot of pressure,” he said.

“Luckily, when I did get a winner, it released the pressure and my confidence built up – I just thought positive and everything went back on track again.”

Pressure is not something Hall has placed on his protégé, or not unduly, at least. Instead, the rider credits his boss with aiding his development.

“He has given me lots of opportunities, lots of barrier trials, lots of gallops as well as race rides, but he didn’t ever give me too much pressure,” he said. 

“The pressure was just enough to remind me that I have to do things in a professional way, do the form – because Hong Kong is very tough – and he taught me to be more aware and focused in a race.”

Hall was delighted for Poon but acknowledged that the jockey has some work to do now that he has to compete without his apprentice claim on one of the world’s toughest circuits, even though he will still have the aid of a 3lb freelance allowance.

“He’s had a few trips to the stewards' room and on a number of occasions they've been a similar sort of scenario, so he's got a little bit of work to do and dropping from five (pounds) to three will have an impact as well,” Hall said.

“But he can ride the minimum,” he added. “He's got a pretty level head on him and he’s well-liked among the local trainers so I think there will be plenty of opportunity for him. If he can handle the pressure, knuckle down and do some hard work, he'll be fine.”

Those words rang true four races later when Poon bagged his second win of the night in the Class 4 LONGINES Cup Handicap (1000m). Beaut Beaut landed the trophy race by a neck at odds of 6.2, as Poon teamed with trainer Peter Ho to take his season’s tally to 12