Trainer Leslie Khoo saddled the vastly-improved Scout Done to a third win in a row when he came out tops in the $60,000 Class 4 Division 2 race over 1200m on Friday.
The Swiss Ace three-year-old had made significant headway since racing for Khoo at his last four starts, running second first-up and racking up one win after another from Class 5 to Kranji Stakes D company through to Class 4 level in the space of seven weeks.
Ridden by Alan Munro, who was also aboard at his first two victories, Scout Done ($9) tracked up behind race-leader Kaiser (Soo Khoon Beng) before being heeled along for his challenge upon straightening.
Kaiser offered a meek resistance but danger was still lurking when second favourite Mr Whitaker (Michael Rodd) rocked up with a late assault on the outside. But well ridden by Munro, Scout Done did not show any signs of letting up to rally home with half-a-length to spare from a far from disgraced Mr Whitaker. Third another 2 ¾ lengths away was Perfect Challenger (Oscar Chavez) who flew home late to beat Kaiser to third spot by a short head.
The winning time was 1min 11.77secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.
Khoo said Scout Done was no superstar but if placed in the right race, he should have a few more wins up his sleeve.
“He’s done well to win three in a row from Class 5 to Class 4, but I would say that is about his limit,” said Khoo.
“But he’s only three years old and hopefully, he can improve further. I will probably find a similar Class 4 race for him and see how he goes.
“KB set a nice pace to the race and it suited my horse while Laurie’s (Laxon) horse (Mr Whitaker) was further back and we got the first run on him, he could not catch up.”
Munro jumped off with nothing but words of praise for the Happy Life Stable-owned galloper.
“He’s an improving horse. The plan was just to take a sit behind the lead and wait for the home straight to get going,” said the English jockey.
“It was a pretty straightforward plan and luckily, everything went well.”
Scout Done has now racked up prizemoney close to the $95,000 mark for connections, the Happy Life Stable.
