In-form jockey Manoel Nunes maintained his perfect record aboard Southern Boss by adding a third win from as many combinations on Sunday.

The pair first teamed up at the Bletchley Park three-year-old’s third start, then recording a narrow win from Moova Hoova in a Class 4 race over 1000m before scoring a more dominant win at their next outing, in an identical race a month later.

Nunes was logically retained for the next assignment, the $55,000 Open Benchmark 67 race over 1000m, a race that trainer Leslie Khoo opted over next Sunday’s $250,000 Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint (1200m), though he had not completely ruled out backing him up in the first Leg of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge after the latest success.

Southern Boss’s fourth win (he scored at debut with jockey Saifudin Ismail up) was however no armchair ride for Nunes. After settling the $9 favourite in second spot outside race-leader Raleigh (A’Isisuhairi Kasim) to take it up the straight upon cornering, the Brazilian jockey had to pull out all the stops inside the last 100m as he was still within catching distance from the Mark Walker pair of Soul Commander (Shafiq Rizuan) and Lightning Mac (Barend Vorster).

Soul Commander made a late lunge on the line, but Southern Boss dug deep and was able to last by a neck from his luckless challenger, who could have issued a more dangerous threat had he obtained clear galloping room at a crucial stage in the home straight. Lightning Mac had to settle for third place another three parts of a length away. The winning time was 59.48secs.

“I thought this race would be easier to win than having to run against horses like Huka Falls in the Sprint race next Sunday,” said Khoo.

“But I’ll see. I haven’t decided yet if I will back him up or not. If he does, that would be it as the other Legs (1400m and 1600m) would be too far for him.

“I’ll have to see how he pulls up, but it sure was a tougher win today. He’s not the easiest horse to ride, but Nunes knows him inside out and timed his run to perfection.”

Contrary to Khoo, Nunes was a lot more adamant in his assessment of Southern Boss’ recovery rate for the Group 3 race.

“It would be too rushed to back him up. He needs a little break now,” said Nunes who was at a race-to-race double having scored aboard another favourite ($14), Yourstokeep for trainer Michael Freedman in the previous race, a $55,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1200m.

“He’s still very green, but he’s a lot better now. You remember how he just went right off around the turns at my first win on him.

“He was also a bit slow to jump today, but he still showed a lot of speed to be up there with the pace. They were catching up with him but he showed plenty of guts to win.”

With that fourth win, Southern Boss has now bumped his earnings up to around the $120,000 mark for the Southern Stable.