Jockey Alan Munro said a “perfect trip” paved the way to Blossoms Sequel’s third win on the trot in the $80,000 Mount Faber Stakes, a Class 3 race over 1700m on Sunday.

The English rider, who was at his first link-up with the vastly-improved six-year-old son of Royal Academy, said things just flowed seamlessly for the pair even if the pace was a bit of a stop-and-start affair midrace.

Indeed, the complexion of the event turned on its head at the 900m when favourite Power Play (Nooresh Juglall) and Flying Zero (Corey Brown) suddenly injected more speed into the race by stealing the lead from Tiger Master (Thavarajan Barnabas).

While the sudden rush caused a few to lose a bit of their momentum, Blossoms Sequel ($35), who was second-last before the tempo switch, somehow glided through between runners, improving three wide to be within striking distance at the top of the straight.

Hitting top gear, Blossoms Sequel went full bore ahead. Luck also lent a helping hand as his main dangers, Flying Zero and Power Play got into a bumping duel, as they both tried to lift at the 300m, but just could not go through their gears coming off such a flat spot. Sebrose (Manoel Nunes) on the other hand, was careering home well, but also peaked on his run, held off by Blossoms Sequel by three parts of a length.

Power Play had to settle for third another 1 ¼ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 45.46secs for the 1700m on the Polytrack.

“This horse has done very well at his first run in Class 3. We had the perfect run throughout,” said Munro.

“We were just lucky.”

Though Blossoms Sequel still had a fair bit to go in terms of ratings (being only on 63 points), his long odds of squeezing into the final line-up of the Group 1 Longines Singapore Gold Cup (2200m) on November 15 have been shaved off a little after that convincing win.

Winning trainer Laurie Laxon was not as bold to state the Tivic Stable-owned galloper was heading that way, but had one main line of argument to suggest why not.

“He beat a Gold Cup horse (Power Play), didn’t he? He’s done a very good job again, stepping up to Class 3 and winning as he did,” said Laxon who has already named Stepitup, Mr Spielberg, Valbuena, Martin, Ideal Guide and Brad as his Gold Cup hopefuls.

“His trial form was very good coming into today’s race.”

Assistant-trainer Shane Ellis said the days of pulling his head off and doing everything wrong were behind Blossoms Sequel.

“He used to lay in, would reef and tear and would not settle, but we have straightened him out now,” said Ellis.

“He has improved from the day we put pacifiers on. He’s racing like a genuine horse now.”

With that fifth win from 24 starts, Blossoms Sequel has now brought his stakes earnings close to the $200,000 mark for his connections.