Sacred Gift emerged a worthy winner from a titanic battle with favourite Celavi in the $100,000 Kranji Stakes A race over 1000m on Saturday.
Celavi was on the backfoot from the start after a tardy getaway for jockey Louis-Philippe Beuzelin, who was seen working overtime on the usually speedier mare to keep up with the leader Entertainer (A'Isisuhairi Kasim).
Into the straight, Celavi collared the fading Entertainer, and looked all set to bounce back to winning ways after two dismal failures at her last two starts this season, but Darc Bounty (Zyrul Nor Azman) and Sacred Gift (Iskandar Rosman, $23) were still in hot pursuit on the outside.
It was the latter who gained ascendancy the quickest, with the six-and-a-half kgs pull in weight between Sacred Gift and Celavi the telling factor in the end.
Shouldering the top impost of 57kgs, Celavi went down by a short head while Darc Bounty hung on to his third place another length away.
The winning time was 59.16 seconds for the 1000m on the Polytrack.
Winning trainer Jerome Tan said that the Zoustar six-year-old had been in great shape since winning a Class 2 race four weeks ago, and was confident the featherweight load would enhance his winning chances.
"I thought he had a good chance of winning this race because of the light weight (50.5kgs)," said the Singaporean conditioner.
"He is very fit, and Iskandar rode him well.
"There are not many available races around, so I shall see how he pulls up and most probably run him in a sprint race in Class 1 next."
Tan's second runner was the resuming Sacred Rebel (Ronnie Stewart) who was first-up in four months. The seven-year-old son of Sepoy dropped to last and never made his presence felt.
Iskandar and Sacred Gift actually combined to hand Tan his first win of the season on March 5. The young Malaysian lad was confident he could go back-to-back.
"I was confident. I think he was my best ride of the day (out of seven rides)," said Iskandar, who sits in second place on four wins in the apprentice jockeys' premiership, just one behind Jerlyn Seow.
"The pace is fast and that suited him. Before the race, Jerome told me not to stay too far away, just settle behind the leaders because this is a small field.
"Also, in this 1000m sprint, there are two or three speedy horses. Towards the end, my horse tried hard, and he was a bit better, so he got the win."
Owned by Malaysian businessman Dato Yap Kim San of the Raffles Racing Stable, Sacred Gift has now taken his record to six wins and seven placings from 24 starts for total stakes earnings in excess of $260,000.
