Lightly-raced gelding Flax returned with a brilliant first-up victory in the $125,000 Better Than Ever 2010 Handicap over 1400m before throwing a scare into racegoers.

Ridden by Subramaniam Anandan, Flax darted between runners to score by a head over evergreen galloper Waikato (Danny Beasley) with Mr Raffles (Greg Cheyne) three-quarters-of-a-length away third.

On returning to the winner's enclosure Flax was feeling the effects of the race and collapsed through heat exhaustion.

Staff from rival trainers and veterinary staff of the Singapore Turf Club were quickly on hand applying water and iced water to the gelding to get him to recover.

Around 30 minutes after the race Flax was able to regain his feet and make his way to the recovery room at the veterinary hospital.

It is not the first time Flax has fallen ill to heat exhaustion. After finishing out of the placings in last year's Emirates Singapore Derby he collapsed on the way back to trainer David Hill's stables.

Luckily on that occasion some quick thinking of stable staff from other trainers and again the veterinary staff of the Singapore Turf Club were on hand to sort the gelding out.

“It was quite scary there for a while but thankfully he seems OK now,” said Hill.

“He's up at the recovery room now and we'll see how he is in the morning.

“I don't know what we are going to do with him now. He's fine when he's working but when he comes to the races he gets himself all stressed.

“He was stressed before the race tonight but then he goes and puts so much effort into his races that he's got nothing left.

“He's a lightly framed little thing but he's also got a lot of ability and thankfully he seems OK now.”

It was Flax's sixth race start on Friday night and the South African-bred five-year-old, by Silvano from the Elliodor mare Bejewelled Spring, has won on five occasions for Newbury Racing.