Donna Logan keeps up her rich vein of form courtesy of a training double provided by two outsiders for good measure on Sunday.
Reverting to his preferred frontrunning tactics, one of the stable favourites The Big Easy ($67) turned back the clock with a return to the winner's enclosure after more than two years in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1100m before Champagne Finale ($98) also dictated terms four events later to go all the way in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1600m.
The brace propels the New Zealander to the 13th place on the Singapore trainers' premiership on 11 winners after she leapfrogged over as many as five trainers. The current spate of winners clearly underlines how her fortunes have changed since her watershed moment when Minister landed the Group 1 Kranji Mile in May following a sluggish start in the first quarter of the season.
"We need winners in this game. I'm very pleased with the double," said Logan.
"The Big Easy had problems and had to undergo surgery. He was right up in the weights, but there's a huge difference between Class 3 and Class 4.
"We weren't super confident because of his barrier (11), but we knew there might be a speed duel, and we went in with Plan A and Plan B, but Iskandar (Rosman) rode him brilliantly by going forward.
"As for Champagne Finale, when the rain came, we know he likes it. He had no weight on his back, and if Yusoff can fire him up at the start, the idea was to lead and make them chase him.
"Yusoff rode him to a tee and it worked."
A five-year-old by All Too Hard, Champagne Finale kept finding when Yaya Papaya (Zyrul Nor Azman) came locking horns with him at the 300m, eventually prevailing with half-a-length to spare at the wire. Cheval Blanc (Iskandar Rosman) crept up under them on the inside to grab third place another nose away. The winning time was 1min 37.8secs for the 1600m on the Short Course.
After settling in third in a one-off position, hot favourite Red Ocean (Danny Beasley) was given every conceivable chance despite the fact he could not lead as at his last two wins, but lacked punch when the chips were down. If there was to be an excuse, fingers could be pointed at the rain-affected track which he seemed to resent when seen shifting in behind runners even though he was pointed on a clear path towards the outside.
But all honours to Champagne Finale who, with that fifth success, has now taken his earnings close to the $140,000 mark for Logan, who also owns him, just like The Big Easy.
The seven-year-old son of Super Easy was also recording a fifth win for prizemoney that has hit around the $165,000 mark.
Rated to perfection by Hakim Kamaruddin, The Big Easy found the front later than Champagne Finale – at around the 800m mark after he kept rolling to wrest the lead from Water Rocket (Marc Lerner) – but was in no mood to relinquish it for the entire length of the home straight when Water Rocket came back with a stinging challenge.
The Big Easy got up by one and a quarter lengths from Water Rocket who held Special Ops (Danny Beasley) off into third place by another one and three-quarter lengths. The winning time was 1min 4.65secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
