"We've tried to soften the blow [since returning to Australia] and my son Nicholas brought me up to date on something [this week]," Moore said. "He said, 'father, you've had 42 runners [of late] and 75 per cent of those have brought some sort of cheque back to the owners'. That was really good to know that.

"[Placing horses] was what dad [George] was good at and taught us how to do. We've taken a few horses over from different trainers and it's very hard to improve them when you're taking over something from Michael Hawkes or Mick Price." Now he just needs to tick the feature-race-win box to really put an exclamation mark on a return here midway through this year after prolonged success in Macau.

That it could be Happy Galaxy in the listed Canterbury Classic on Saturday is problematic. As Moore says, it is hard to improve horses when they've had the early polish applied by Hawkes Racing.

But after a frustrating 18 months of false dawns and faltering form, the former Expressway Stakes winner returns with an eye to the Magic Millions Sprint early in the new year.

Happy Galaxy has only had the one run for Moore, weakening badly on a firm track in stakes company at Caulfield in September when jockey Tommy Berry reported the entire to be making noises, which later required laser treatment. Since then? Moore has been doing a lot of study on and off the track in a bid to rediscover the magic that made Happy Galaxy one of the most exciting horses in training 18 months ago.

"It was a great training performance by the Hawkes family to get him from a maiden at Geelong to win at group2 level, which put the value on him," Moore said. "He was down in Melbourne and got galloped on, then he was inoculated for Hong Kong and he had a reaction to that. He's had a few issues along the way, but he's in really good form at the moment.

"The last run he had for the Hawkes they held him up and he flew home and finished third from a long way back. I think that might be the way to ride him now and that's how he will be ridden on Saturday.

"I think he will probably be in need of a run, but his trial was very good. He didn't blow a lot on [Tuesday] morning, but he just might be one run short."

While Moore will attempt to delve into the past to pluck the best out of Happy Galaxy, it is all about the future for his first two-year-old runner since returning to Australia when Joyful Passion makes an 11th-hour bid for a Magic Millions berth.

Moore has been steadfast in not racing his emerging team out of their grade, but Joyful Passion will either head for the Magic Millions Classic or wait a week later for a rich two-year-olds' sprint on the Sunshine Coast pending the outcome of the opener at Canterbury.

"He has a lot of ability and it's been a fairly rushed preparation and a big ask because he didn't come to me until very late," Moore said of his $155,000 breeze-up buy in September.

"He's worked very well going into the race and I'm hoping he can run a respectable race. Hopefully he can generate some prizemoney because we're going to need at least $20,000 to have any chance of getting into the Magic Millions."

Moore also has former Hong Kong galloper Keredari in the third.