Jerome Tan couldn’t have hoped for a more emphatic way to break his 2022 duck when Sacred Gift upstaged much better-backed rivals in Saturday’s $85,000 Class 2 race over 1100m to give him his first win in the new season.
After newbie Stephen Crutchley opened his account with Mesmerizing (see earlier report), the Singaporean handler was with Leslie Khoo and Richard Lim the only three of 23 Kranji trainers not to have visited the winner's circle in the new season.
But Tan, who had cast the net wide with a rare bumper team of 15 runners on Saturday, decided the wooden spoon would not be his when $82 longshot Sacred Gift came sailing home on the outside for an impressive victory.
When it rains, it pours as Tan went two-up two races later with Big Tiger (Wong Chin Chuen, $15) in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 2 race over 1200m.
Another notable milestone of sorts in Tan's red-letter day was Sacred Gift being his first winner for the Raffles Racing Stable's Dato Yap Kim San.
"It's great I've finally won my first race this year and my first for Raffles Racing. May the good run continue," said Tan.
The Malaysian tycoon had horses with champion trainer Mark Walker for the longest time (after a first association with Michael Freedman), but many thought he had called time on his Singapore horse racing venture when he all but sold away his stock last year.
But even before Walker made the shock announcement he was returning to New Zealand in December, Dato Yap had already bought some of his old horses back and sent them to Tan.
A few like Sacred Croix and Sacred Judgement had already got the new association off and running, but it was Sacred Gift who would seal it with their first success.
The four-time winner received only lukewarm support, with punters presumably put off by his dismal maiden run for Tan when a fading last to King Arthur in a Class 3 race over 1200m on February 13.
But that day, Sacred Gift was ridden a little upside down when he rolled to the front before compounding badly.
Tan told stand-in jockey Iskandar, who was replacing the indisposed Jerlyn Seow Poh Hui, not to defy the horse's natural pattern.
The Malaysian apprentice jockey, who was in white-hot form, having won two races earlier, showed he really had the Midas touch on Saturday.
Saving his horse's energy for the last burst, Iskandar only released the handbrakes from the 600m as Sacred Gift looped around the field to corner for the judge with the highest momentum.
Favourite King Arthur (Wong Chin Chuen) led from the outset, but looked under the pump when Darc Bounty (Zyrul Nor Azman) and Ararat Lady (Mohd Zaki) came baying for blood while his well-backed stablemate Entertainer (A'Isisuhairi Kasim) was never in the hunt after settling outside King Arthur from the getaway.
Running on under his own steam, Sacred Gift went on to score a soft win by 1 ¾ lengths from King Arthur with Darc Bounty third another short head away. The winning time was 1min 5.42secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
"The bottom weight was the winning factor (48.5kgs) today," said Tan.
"At his last start, Lerner went to the front, but the horse was fresh-up and it was the wrong move. He faded in the straight.
"This time, I told Iskandar to sit at the back, and the horse finished off strongly, especially with no weight on his back."
Iskandar, who from zero win has propelled to second spot on the Singapore apprentice jockey's log on three wins, one behind Seow, said his one previous experience atop Sacred Gift went some way in delivering the Gift this time.
"I rode this horse before when he was with Mark Walker. He ran third coming from behind," he said.
"I actually asked Aiman (Hakim Kamaruddin) how to ride this horse. He told me he's a horse who goes better when you take him to the outside.
"Jerome also told me at his last start that he went forward and punctured. I just had to follow the pace from the back, and he won a nice race."
Sacred Gift has now taken his smart record to five wins and seven placings from 23 starts for prizemoney around the $210,000 mark for the Raffles Racing Stable.
