A thrilling finish at the end of the Hello Africa Stakes on Sunday had trainer Hideyuki Takaoka and jockey Alan Munro heaving a huge sigh of relief as Gold Rutile emerged victorious.

The Japanese-bred mare was locked in a tense battle with Wild Geese (Manoel Nunes) with 50m to go and both were neck-to-neck as they crossed the winning post of the $125,000 Kranji Stakes A race over 1600m.

Several viewings of the photo finish were required before it was determined that Gold Rutile had snuck ahead at the death by a nose for the victory with Born To Fly (Rueven Ravindra) one-and-a-half lengths away in third. The winning time on the Short Course was 1min 34.77secs.

It was a winning double for Takaoka and Munro after they secured a maiden winner for Higher Soul in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden (1400m) in Race 2 as the three-year-old brown filly won easily by 3 ½ lengths.

There was hardly any elbow room though in Gold Rutile’s fifth career victory and the nail-biting conclusion had even left the Japanese conditioner scratching his head.

“I thought it was either a dead heat or we lost,” he said. “But Alan knows this horse very well and as usual he timed his run very well. It was a good win. She’s been very consistent for me, a very honest mare.”

A six-year-old by Gold Halo out of Printemps Charme, Gold Rutile has been a picture of consistency for the Wan Du Stable and has only finished outside the top-three twice from his previous 15 starts while back-to-back victories, after taking out a Kranji Stakes A race over 1400m on June 27, has pushed his stakes earnings to a shade over $340,000.

Munro had been in the irons for that successful outing 16 days ago but a question mark still hung over his mount’s ability to cover the mile here, he said.

“Her form has been good but I wasn’t sure about the 1600m, to be honest,” said the English rider. “She pulled a bit during the race but she’s got a tremendous will to win and she’s always up for it, you know. Every time before a race in the paddock, you can see she’s ready for it.”

A dogfight was what she got from the Steven Burridge-trained Wild Geese, also an earnest battler in his own right, as the two runners bided their time in midfield side-by-side as the challenge from early frontrunner Nandowra (Pregasam Dellorto) expectedly faded at the top of the straight and it was left to Born To Fly to lead proceedings.

Also of note was the way the Michael Freedman-trained Tropaios (Noh Senari) hung out severely at this point and gave guests at the marquee a rare close-up look of last year’s Longines Gold Cup winner.

But that distraction was soon forgotten as focus was rightly returned to the leading duo and both Gold Rutile and Wild Geese took advantage of the space presented on the outside of Born To Fly to pull clear and wage their own private battle instead, with Gold Rutile rising to the challenge, albeit by a whisker.

“He gave me a fright that horse (Wild Geese) when he came up to us but thankfully we managed to hang on,” said Munro.