With the biggest team sent out on Friday night, trainer Alwin Tan had been expecting a good harvest, but had to in the end wait until the last event of the nine-race programme to avoid going home empty-handed.
Among his 11 runners, Tan harboured the biggest hopes for the likes of Nova Warrior, Rich Fortune, Dragon Master to hit home, but they all bit the dust, with Dragon Master coming the closest with a second place in Race 2.
The Singaporean was staring down the barrel of a blank night until $64 outsider Power Lin saved the day in the lucky last, the $60,000 Class 4 race over 1200m, with a replacement rider in apprentice jockey Rueven Ravindra to boot.
Tan also saddled the better-fancied Nova Spirit (Shafiq Rizuan) in the race, but the Congrats three-year-old was never a threat.
On the other hand, Power Lin, who had not greeted the judge since December, always travelled in a striking position behind the speed, just sweating over a run at the top of the straight.
Rueven, who picked up the ride after fellow rookie Troy See was stood down when he became indisposed after Race 7, got more than he bargained for when taking a tow behind favourite Satellite Boy (Barend Vorster).
After galloping beside Duty First (John Powell), Satellite Boy was largely expected to launch upon straightening, but to his backers’ dismay, he faded badly. Rueven could not have hoped for a better script as that sudden unravelling of the horse most tagged as the one to beat, opened up the passage that he had been praying for.
Not looking back, Laurie Laxon’s Malaysian apprentice jockey drove the Canny Lad five-year-old through and even though Terms Of Reference (Nooresh Juglall) took back some deficit, the race was all over at the 100m post. Power Lin hit the line with 1 ¾ lengths to spare from Terms Of Reference with Golden Tomahawk (Corey Brown) gallantly closing in late only to fail for the runner-up spot by a nose.
The winning time was 1min 12.58secs for the 1200m on Polytrack.
“It’s been a hard day for us. We were expecting much better results and luckily, Power Lin has rescued us in the last race,” said Tan.
“It was his second run for me, and he was a lot fitter tonight. I told Rueven to ride this horse a lot more positive this time and he took my instructions very well. He normally drops further back.
“When he got the split at the home turn, I was confident he would be hard to run down. I’m very happy for the owner Mr Chua (Kang Lim) and his partners (Happiness Come Stable).”
Power Lin, who was first prepared by Steven Burridge early in his racing career before he changed trainer five times, has now amassed a handy bundle for his connections: More than $160,000 from three wins and seven placings in 26 starts.
Rueven was grateful for the last-minute chance ride as it has enabled him to reignite a career that had been stalled through a foot injury. Power Lin was bringing up his fourth win since coming back on his 24th birthday on May 15 when he scored on Laughing Gravy, taking his tally to 10 wins in third place and only three shy of current leader Mohd Firdaus (still out injured).
Ironically, the win also allowed him to sit just one win behind the jockey who handed him the ride after he came down sick, See.
“I’d like to thank the trainer and the owner for that pick-up ride,” said the always polite young rider.
“He had a nice draw (3) on the inside and the pace wasn’t too fast, slow and easy. He was always travelling well.
“I was just patiently waiting for a gap and when Barend’s horse dropped back, it just came up and my horse went through and hit the line very strongly. He got home nice and easy.”
