Debutant Major King (NZ) (Per Incanto) surged past Star Victory (Vancouver) to score a gutsy win in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1200m at Kranji on Saturday.
The three-year-old son of Per Incanto came to Singapore on the back of a win in a barrier trial in New Zealand, followed by two barrier trial wins at Kranji prior to his debut.
Ridden by apprentice jockey Hakim Kamaruddin, who recently had his apprentice jockey licence extended till the end of this year, the Jason Ong-trained newcomer jumped well but found himself three wide early in the race.
Having tracked Star Victory throughout, Major King upped the ante late to motor past his opponents and win by three quarters of a length.
Ong seems to have uncovered a raw gem for The Sisterhood Stable, but he prefers to “keep things open” when it comes to the nomination for the Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m).
“He doesn’t have a lot of speed, and I was a little worried when I saw Kinabalu Prince kept him three wide, but he ran well even if he’s not 100% rock-solid fit,” said the Singaporean trainer.
“He’s shown a lot of potential when we bought him from New Zealand, where he won one trial. He also showed ability from two trials here.
“But he’s still raw and immature and there’s room for improvement but he’s a horse I’m pretty excited with.
“I think we can look at the 1400m to the mile for him in future, so not the 3YO Sprint, but the 3YO Classic is a possible target.
“But I don’t like to rush young horses, so I’ll see how he pulls up first before deciding to run him or not.”
Later in the programme fellow Kiwi-bred Melody Fair (NZ) (Duelled) provided trainer Leslie Khoo with a significant victory, his first for the year when taking out a maiden 1600m contest.
“I want to thank all the trainers supporting me in the trainers’ room,” said the happy trainer.
“It’s my first winner of the year!
“It took me six months to get this win. I’d like to thank everybody and the owner (LSS Stable) for giving me this win.”
The son of Duelled had to dig deep late to get the job done but the head win – in a time of 1 min 35.98secs – was probably more comfortable than it looked.
