Golden Monkey relished the switch to turf as he cruised away to a facile win second-up in the $20,000 Open Maiden race (1200m) on Saturday.
The three-year-old son of Star Turn was held up and checked in the straight at his last start in a similar Polytrack race three weeks ago. Despite that, he made up ground to run third to Shang Chi.
The chestnut, who came to Singapore on the back of three placings in five starts in Australia, began well from the outside barrier to cut across the field of 12 to gain the lead.
It was probably the winning move from the Panamanian-born jockey.
The $16 favourite gave no signs of giving up in the straight even when Holy Eleanor (Zyrul Nor Azman) loomed for a brief moment, but had to settle for second three-and-a-quarter lengths away.
Missile Rain (Koh Teck Huat) took third place another two-and-a-quarter lengths away. The winning time was 1 min 10.16secs on the Long Course over the 1200m.
Winning trainer Tim Fitzsimmons thought Golden Monkey was a better prospect on the turf. He has the two upcoming three-year-old feature races on his radar now.
"Everything went wrong the other day. The horse next to him, Rahotu, flipped over and it got to him a little bit," said the leading Australian handler of his 20th winner this season.
"He got checked a bit in the straight then, but you saw the real Golden Monkey today. He's much better on the turf.
"We were slightly concerned with the wide barrier but I told Oscar to ride him like the best horse in the race.
"He rode him perfectly. He is a nice horse going forward and he will be heading to the 3YO series.
"He will probably have one more run and then go straight to the (Singapore Three-Year-Old) Sprint, and he will definitely get the 1400m (Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic).
"He raced five times on the turf in Australia. Though he did not win, he showed good form.
"He was bought by (bloodstock agent) Josh McLoughlan in a private sale. He's given me great support over the years.
"Josh syndicated the horse to a group of Australian owners. Many of them are new owners and a couple of them live here. Hopefully, they get excited with their first winner.
"Last week was a disaster. At least, I got a winner today!"
Fitzsimmons certainly did not stop at one winner. He went on to bag his second treble of the season (his first hat-trick of wins was on January 8, courtesy of Dancing Light, Super Atas and Lucky Jinsha) with Magnificent Gold and Hero scoring later.
Race-favourite ($22) Magnificent Gold bounced back to his best in the $30,000 Class 5 race over 1600m four races later, while Hero ($34) pegged Con Speranza (Marc Lerner) back to take out the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1600m.
Both horses were ridden by leading Brazilian hoop Manoel Nunes, who ended the day with a haul of four winners. His two other winners were See Yah and Yes One Ball, incidentally, bringing up trainer Ricardo Le Grange's 200th winner in Singapore.
Chavez, who is tied with jockey Danny Beasley on 18 winners on the jockeys' premiership but sits in second place on a superior number of seconds, concurred with Fitzsimmons that his mount was much better on the turf.
"He's a totally different horse on the turf," said Chavez.
"Tim said to ride him positive out of the gates. He said to lead if we had to, and then let the horse do the job from there.
"He did that exactly. We turned for home, I set him loose and he went 'whoosh'."
Golden Monkey has earned more than $12,000 with his first win and one third in two starts for the Golden Monkey Stable.
The Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint (1200m) and the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m), both run over the turf, will be held on June 18 and July 9 respectively.
They used to make up the first two legs of the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenges series, which was cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The third leg was the Group 1 Singapore Guineas (1600m).
