Favourite Lucky Charm lived up to expectations at his fourth outing in the $20,000 Maiden race (1400m) on Saturday after he bounded away to his first win.
Trained by Michael Clements and ridden by jockey Wong Chin Cheun, the four-year-old Australian bay bided his time quietly in mid field before Wong made his move to swing wide into the straight.
Leader Pure Perfection (Amirul Ismadi) blew out at the 400m and with Holy Eleanor (Iskandar Rosman) and Raffie (Krisna Thangamani) not making up ground, Lucky Charm ($13) flew past in one swoop under Wong's urgings before going on to score by two lengths from Raffie.
Beyond Sacred (Shafrizal Saleh) finished another half-a-length away in third. The winning time was 1min 22.42secs for the 1400m on the Long Course.
Lucky Charm, the only progeny of 2015 Japanese Horse of the Year Maurice racing at Kranji now, was tipped as the favourite at his last three starts in Open Maiden races but failed to open his account.
However, he flew home with an eye-catching fifth under jockey Manoel Nunes over 1200m last Saturday, and Clements made the wise decision to back him up after a week.
"He's the type of horse that suits a quick back-up, and it's great that the owners (Greenwood Stable) are here today," said the Zimbabwean-born handler.
"Things worked out okay. He had a good run last week, stepped up to 1400m today and it's on the Long Course.
"He wore blinkers earlier (in a 1000m sprint on September 17) but didn't finish off well, so we decided to remove it, ride him a bit quieter and managed to get him to settle down.
"That was the plan last week as well. He finished strongly but was just too far back then.
"1400m is the trip for him now but on his breeding, he can get further. The Novice (race over) 1400m on the turf that comes up in a couple of weeks' (November 19) would be ideal for him."
The 2020 Singapore champion trainer brought up a five-timer for the first time in Singapore after Greatham Girl ($20), South Of The River, Absolute Radiance ($23) and Prodigal ($41) also saluted. In particular, South Of The River's commanding win from start to finish in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 2 race (1000m) first-up brought extra joy to his group of owners present at the races.
Unseen after his last seven-length win nine months ago in an Open Maiden race (1000m), the $10 favourite shot right back in the winner's circle, albeit his condition gave out a bit in the end.
Clements was certainly pleased with the son of Statue Of Liberty.
"He was impressive at his first win, had a good prep this time but nothing like race fitness, so there's a bit of question there," he said.
"We expected him to come on. There was a lot of speed, he was also very speedy. He's a nice horse going forward.
"The owner Mr Jimmy Poh is a Malaysian businessman and he owns the horses with his group of friends.
"They have four horses with me, three are running today and one of them is South Of The River , the first horse they bought (the third runner is Pacific Star).
"They have a new horse that arrived from England a couple of weeks ago and they also bought a few other two-year-olds as well."
Winning rider Wong had nothing but praises for both Lucky Charm and South Of The River.
"When we came into the top of the straight, Lucky Charm was travelling extremely well underneath me," said the Malaysian jockey, who is also a Singaporean Permanent Resident.
"He kept bowling along. I was a bit worried that he'd hit the front a bit too soon but he finished off strongly.
"He's good enough to go for a Class 4 race. Credit to Michael and he asked me to take a sit and try to finish it off, which is the correct way to ride him.
"South Of The River has natural speed and the draw (barrier no.1) helped. He is coming back from a break but he lengthened up pretty easily when I asked him in the straight.
"I am very pleased to get the good results for them and I want to thank the owners and Michael for giving me the opportunities."
Besides the two winners for Greenwood Stable, Wong also steered the Tan Kah Soon-trained War Frontier ($107) to a win in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race (1000m), bagging a hat-trick of wins.
With that first win and a second on debut, Lucky Charm has taken his earnings to over $15,000 in prizemoney for connections. South Of The River, who has two wins from three starts, has amassed close to $40,000 in prizemoney.
