After more than a year of waiting, Sartorial finally made his Kranji debut and it was a memorable one as he scored a battling win in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden over 1100m on Sunday.

The Australian-bred colt had arrived on these shores in May last year but was plagued with injury issues which prevented him from making a competitive start until 13 months later.

It was certainly worth the wait though for trainer Cliff Brown who was thoroughly satisfied with the performance of his three-year-old sprinter who showed his appetite for a fight as he held off favourite Power Lin (Danny Beasley) to win by a length with Super Six (Cheng Ke Ten) another three-quarter length away in third.

“He’s just a lovely horse and I’ve always thought he had some good ability,” said the Australian conditioner. “Unfortunately he had an injury to his tendon and we had to take some time to nurse him back.

“In the early days he was an empty sort of horse but he’s come along nicely. He’s still a colt and still very new at all this so we don’t have any big plans, he’ll move on to a Novice race next.”

Also showing plenty of patience with Sartorial has been jockey Corey Brown, who has been working closely with the Tarnpirr & Newbury Stable-owned galloper, purchased for A$65,000, and monitoring his progress closely.

“I’ve trialled on him three times and he’s such a lovely horse,” said the Australian hoop, who rang up his 36th winner of the season and his eighth alone this month. “I actually thought we were going to win easily today but he was a bit intimidated by Danny’s horse (Power Lin).”

After a smooth passage on the rails tracking first leader Little Lion (Richard Lim) and then Power Lin, Sartorial’s challenge seemed to stall at the top of the straight but quick thinking – and hands – by Brown rectified that and Sartorial ($21) pinned his ears back over the final furlong to surge clear for an overdue triumph. The winning time on the Polytrack was 1min 6.94secs.

“He lengthened and pulled away nicely only after I switched the whip to my left,” said Brown. “But he responded well when I pressed the button on him and he dug deep and I was very pleased with him.”

The son of Sharmardal, who was also the sire of Gingerbread Man, who was crowned Singapore’s Champion Two and Three-Year-Old in 2010 and 2011, the sight of Sartorial finally in action would have pleased his connections, as would the $42,000 paycheque he delivered with the promise of more to come.