Vet bills have been piling up instead of wins for Mr Big Brother at his two seasons, but perseverance finally paid off on Saturday.
Resuming from a mandatory six-month ban imposed for a bleeding attack at his last start on October 25, Mr Big Brother (who was originally known as Mr Fat Kiddy) was breaking through for his first win at his 15th start in the $20,000 Maiden race over 1100m on Polytrack.
If there were any concerns his lack of racing fitness could tell when he collared the weakening leader Superior Coat (Mohd Zaki) after racing prominently throughout, they were quickly allayed.
Presumably mindful of Mr Big Brother 's fragile past history – he also underwent a wind op - jockey Saifudin Ismail was seen cuddling him to the line even as they surged to the front, but when favourite Reignite (A'Isisuhairi Kasim) crept up underneath him towards the railside, it was the cue to go full bore.
The momentum seemed to be swinging Mark Walker's gallant challenger for a few fleeting seconds, but the Sebring three-year-old again proved intractable with his inclination to lug in.
There were, however, no such steering worries with Mr Big Brother ($41), who kept pulling plenty to go and score with three-quarter length to spare from Reignite. Ben Wade (Hakim Kamaruddin) ran third another gap of 4 ¼ lengths away.
"After he bled, he also did a wind surgery – a tie-back surgery performed by the Club vets," said winning trainer John O'Hara.
"He had a good break that actually helped. I told Saifudin to ride him positive, and when they overcame their wide barrier (10) and got into a handy spot, I knew he would be in with a chance.
"It's good for the owners as that horse had run many seconds. He had a change of name, the owner also changed the stable name (to Shengjun Stable), but the horse still races in the colours of the racing manager Frankie Lim (better known as the owner of 2011 Group 2 Queen Elizabeth II Cup winner Fatkid).
"Here I'd like to thank Frankie for his patience with this horse. He never gave up hope even after so many problems.
"A shout-out to my assistant-trainer Mahadi Taib. He really looked after this horse and today's result is a fantastic reward for all concerned."
Anecdote lovers would be interested to learn that Mr Big Brother's time of 1min 4.45secs for the Polytrack 1100m is the new class record, shaving 0.11 second off the previous mark held by Emerald Hill – trained by O'Hara and ridden by Saifudin nine years ago!
The Singaporean handler was unaware of the coincidence, but played it down when told about it.
"There's been a bit of rain, and the Polytrack has been made faster as a result. It's a false time, but it's still a nice record to have," said O'Hara.
"Emerald Hill was a very difficult horse to train, but he was super speedy and very talented. Only Saifudin could ride him."
With that maiden win, Mr Big Brother, the only remaining progeny of Victorian stallion and Australian Guineas winner Al Maher still racing at Kranji, sees his stakes skip to around $65,000 for the Shengjun Stable.
