Honest galloper Knight’s Command notched his second Group 3 win when he recorded a brilliant win in the Woodlands Classic Stakes (2000m) on Sunday.

The Bruce Marsh-trained middle-distance performer earned his first “Black Type” stripes when he won the Group 3 Admiralty Classic Stakes (1600m) last April when handled by Marsh’s apprentice jockey Zuriman Zulkifli.

Knight's Command has since stepped out six more times, all at Group level, including all three Legs of the Singapore Triple Crown series. Though the Pins seven-year-old did not replicate the Admiralty Classic win, he was seldom disgraced, with his latest run when third to Quechua in the Group 3 New Year Cup (1900m) cementing his status as a leading player in the middle-distance features.

Nothing like silverware to cast that impression in even more concrete fashion – and he sure did not let the opportunity go begging on Sunday.

Following a charmed ground-saving run on the rails, Knight’s Command rounded the home turn as arguably the fresh horse on the scene in the small six-horse field (after Lizarre’s scratching).

The others had to conversely do stacks of work in transit. Favourite In Fact (Nooresh Juglall) was hard at work from the 500m after popping off the fence down the back, Tropaios (Craig Newitt) circumnavigated the field but soon died on his run while Emperor’s Banquet (Barend Vorster) had to do it tough punching the breeze outside leader Brilliant Deal (Alan Munro) for most of the way.

In contrast, Knight’s Command ($22) was having a picnic from the rear with Manoel Nunes only partnering him for the second time (first ride was in New Year Cup), improving with minimum fuss as runners rolled off the fence one after another. The Patrick Shaw duo of Emperor’s Banquet and In Fact looked a big threat when they launched at the top of the straight, but they both bowed out when Knight’s Command asserted his superiority in the home straight, charging away to a 2 ½-length victory from Emperor’s Banquet who just finished in advance of his stablemate In Fact by a head.

The winning time was 2min 3.04secs for the 2000m on the Short Course.

“He’s a very genuine horse, well-bred. Where is he going from here will be up to the handicapper!” said Marsh, who jokingly tipped Knight’s Command to win when interviewed on stage at the Singapore Racing Awards dinner on Tuesday night.

“It’s good that he’s won a second Group race for the owner. They’ve been very patient with this horse as he’s not really a sound horse. We have to keep patching him up as he’s got problems from the knee down.

“I left it to Nunes to decide how to ride him depending on how the pace would pan out. He gave him a 10 out of 10 ride.”

The Singapore champion jockey, who does not ride all that often for the Kiwi trainer, was appreciative of the opportunity, more so when it led to back-to-back Woodlands Classic Stakes wins following Dujardin last year.

“It’s good to ride a winner for Bruce. I told him he needs to give me more rides, and I’m glad he’s given me a feature winner,” quipped the leading Brazilian jockey.

“As it was a small field, Bruce only told me to get him to relax whether he was, second-last or last. The pace was a bit slow, but step by step, he started to improve and by the 900m he was boxed in, but cantering beautifully behind the leaders.

“In the straight, once I angled him into the clear, he just quickened away. He was just too good on the day.”

Among the disappointments of the race were Tropaios who is clearly not anywhere close to his 2013 Longines Singapore Gold Cup form, petering on his run to finish last and Dujardin, who brought up the rear for Michael Rodd, but never really threatened to run fifth. In their defence, the crawling sectionals midrace (as slow as 28 seconds) did not help their cause and they should not be written off too soon.

Knight’s Command has now recorded five wins and eight placings in 28 starts for stakes earnings in excess of $380,000 for the TITS & LFS Stable, on top of the NZ$22,350 he made during his career in his native New Zealand.