Grateful Heart joins Shum’s other previous victors in Speedy Longwah (2016) and Charity Glory (2018) in winning the Happy Valley Series that stretches from September through until the middle of February.
A regular in sprint features at Happy Valley, Grateful Heart amassed 70 points during the challenge with his final tally completed after finishing third to Sky Field on Thursday’s Valley meeting.
It wasn’t all sewn up at this point though with only a 13 point buffer over Scores Of Fun who could take out the title with a win in the final sprint of the day and claim 15 points for victory.
The John Size trained runner however found trouble in his race and was unable to secure the required points subsequently finishing in 7th place and handing the spoils to Shum for a third title.
Shum was elated with Grateful Heart’s effort to secure the HK$650,000 first prize, a figure further boosted by prizemoney of HK$345,000 to add further lustre for the chestnut’s connections.
“He deserved it because he had four wins, one second and one third,” Shum said.
“The horse always tries his best - he deserved to get his reward. It’s good, we’re very happy.”
Sky Field, who beat Grateful Heart on Thursday also had reason to celebrate as trainer Casper Fownes collected $1,500,000 in prize money as the Deep Field Gelding won a Class 1 before reaching the age of 5.
This was one of three winners on the day for Fownes who was also able to regain the Trainers Championship lead from John Size after his treble took him back to the top.