It was a pick-up ride on the well-backed Man Of Mystery that provided comeback jockey Shafiq Rizuan his much-awaited return to the winner’s circle at Kranji on Saturday.
The former two-time Singapore champion apprentice jockey had been forced into exile plying his trade in New Zealand and his native Malaysia for three-and-a-half years since his non-renewal in 2018, but was able to return to his old stomping ground when the Singapore Turf Club changed tack and granted him a six-month licence from July 1.
After two unplaced efforts at his first day back last Saturday (the former Kuala Lumpur-based hoop duly served a mandatory two-week quarantine before then), Shafiq had to endure one more unplaced ride on Sweet Tapit, before an impromptu call-up finally gave him the chance to lap up the moment he had long been yearning for.
Replacing the indisposed Vlad Duric aboard Man Of Mystery ($20), aptly for his former master Mark Walker, in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 2 race over 1000m, Shafiq certainly gave Kranji a reminder why he has always been regarded as one of the best homegrown acts.
The Singapore Gold Cup-winning jockey (Cooptado in 2015), however, humbly put that early redemption down to luck. If anything, the symbolism mattered more than the mechanism behind the win.
"It was just luck. I'm a very lucky boy," said Shafiq.
"I'm already so lucky I got a licence to ride in Singapore when racing in Malaysia has stopped, and the COVID-19 situation also seems to be getting worse there.
"Then today, I won on a pick-up ride which was also a good chance. I'm so happy I got my first winner.
"I looked up to the skies after the line, hoping my late mother is watching – her birthday was on July 1.
"But the horse did everything by himself, Mark had the horse fit and ready. I was just the jockey."
Shafiq is selling himself short. The Kelantan-born jockey had to use all of his science of pace to keep the All Too Hard six-year-old named after Austin Powers humming and building momentum in the perfect spot. He then peeled his mount three wide to the outside of First Chief (Krisna Thangamani) and Cousteau (A'Isisuhairi Kasim), counting up to five before finally going flat to the boards at the 200m.
First Chief tried to engineer a fightback but Man Of Mystery was in no mood to loosen his grip on a fourth victory, ably assisted to this end by a vigorous Shafiq equally determined to reach that Kranji winner No 195 mark since his win counter froze in time with Supersonicsurprise on November 10, 2017.
A placegetter at four of his last five starts, Man Of Mystery ($20) stood his ground with a half-length advantage on First Chief all the way to the wire. Vulcan (Matthew Kellady) ran on to claim third spot another length away. The winning time was 58.26 seconds for the 1000m speed scamper on Polytrack.
"He had a nice draw (three), he jumped and followed the pace. He travelled well throughout," said Shafiq.
"At the 400m, I knew he could win. I waited for the last 200m to let go and he was too good."
Walker, whose last winner with Shafiq dates back to September 17, 2017 when they combined successfully with Bao Shan Magic, was delighted the old firm was back for a second lease of life.
"Shafiq is back in town! He has always been a class rider," said the three-time Singapore champion trainer.
"I told him to take his time on this horse. He held him up as long as he could, it was a 10-out-of-10 ride.
"Shafiq has been riding trackwork for me since he came back and will definitely get plenty of support from me.
"He just needs to get race-fit again as they weren't racing for a while in Malaysia but he's getting there."
Man Of Mystery has now taken his record to four wins and 11 placings from 31 starts for prizemoney that has just tipped over the $200,000 mark for the Remarkable Stable.
