The new Kuah Cheng Tee-Azhar Ismail partnership welcomed their first winner on Friday night when US debutant Winning Hobby won the $75,000 Restricted Maiden Division 1 race over 1200m.
The Malaysian multiple-champion jockey has ridden off and on for Kuah, himself a former jockey, in the past, even scoring once aboard Decreto, but this is their first hurrah as a team.
By coincidence, that second win came almost two years to the day. Decreto scored on February 3, 2017.
Kuah was obviously delighted the winning partnership with someone he once rode against has produced its first winner.
“Azhar and I go a long way. He helps me a lot at trackwork, and it’s great he won a race for me tonight,” said Kuah.
“I bought this horse from the US at the breeze-ups. He showed some ability at his barrier trials and I told Azhar to go forward with him.
“He’s a nice horse and I believe he has the ability and can improve further, especially in terms of fitness. I would say he was 90% there tonight.
“He raced quite green and still has a long way to go.”
Azhar, who is showing no signs of letting up at 55, was beaming from ear to ear as he returned to scales. A few weeks ago, he was stood down from his riding engagements because of some work permit issues which state that foreign jockeys can only ride for their sponsors, in his case, Kuah.
“It’s good to win a race for CT. We work well together,” he said.
“Nice horse, but he’s still very green. He gave me a good feel at trackwork but there is still room for improvement.
“The plan was to race handy, but when he hit the front, he was a bit lost. He won on raw ability.”
After racing up on the speed throughout, Winning Hobby ($22) shot clear to go and post a 2 ¼-length win from Super Smart (Benny Woodworth) with favourite Hugo (Ben Thompson) third another three-quarter length away. The winning time was 1min 10.32secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
