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Despite having strength in numbers with as many as 18 runners fielded over 10 of the 12 races on offer on Friday, trainer Mark Walker had to endure a long wait before Bazinga saluted at long odds in the third-last race, the $75,000 Kranji Stakes C race over 1200m on Polytrack.

With his best showing being two second placings from Mr Bean (Race 1) and Manny Pacuaio (Race 5), Walker was staring down the barrel of a winless day until his 14th runner for the day, Bazinga ($188), ridden by stable apprentice Shafiq Rizuan, saved the day.

Walker’s second runner and slightly better-fancied Fighter Jet (Zuriman Zulkifli) also looked a chance halfway up the home straight, but the Alvin Tan-trained Imacruiser (Ivaldo Santana) split the pair to pinch second place by a nose from Fighter Jet. The winning time was 1min 11.45secs.

Honest Truth (Sam Subian) showed the way at a fast clip, followed by favourite Terminator (Corey Brown) on his girth, while Country Club (Alan Munro) and Media Captain (Joao Moreira) were enjoying the perfect trail behind.

Travelling four wide facing the breeze from the back, Imacruiser kept up his momentum to launch a stiff challenge upon straightening. Honest Truth knocked up in a flash, but Country Club, Media Captain and Terminator went full bore, but it was the long-priced pair of Imacruiser ($90) and Fighter Jet ($157) who were looking the more likely at that point in time.

But Bazinga, who had up until then, played a bit part in the whole proceedings after dropping at the rear, suddenly appeared from nowhere on the outside. With only 50m to go, the Fastnet Rock five-year-old sprouted wings to score by 1 ¼ lengths from Imacruiser, with Fighter Jet a nose away in third.

Raced by the Remarkable Stable in the familiar orange Te Akau Racing silks, Bazinga (ex-Macau) has now registered seven wins from 27 starts at Kranji, six of which were scored with Shafiq up.

“Shafiq seems to have an affinity with this horse. The only other time he won with someone else was with Vlad Duric at his second win,” said the Kiwi conditioner.

“I think his freshness was gone after his last start (when he beat one home on May 5). He was not fresh enough over 1000m and that was why I stepped him up to 1200m today.

“I also removed the tongue tie, just to play around with his gear and it seems to have paid off. Sometimes you need to change up a few things on those older horses.

“They went hard in front and he got tailed right off in the initial stages. That suited him perfectly.

“Too bad Fighter Jet lost by a nose or it would have been 1-2 for us. There wasn’t much between the two (Fighter Jet and Imacruiser).

“I’m pretty happy with Fighter Jet as it’s hard for such horses to come here with that rating and find the right race for him.

“But I think there should be a race for him soon.”

On the frustrating part of not saddling a winner until he sent out his 14th runner of the day, Walker said he was not holding his breath given he had more quantity than quality and was glad to take at least a win home.

“We have a lot of these mediocre and average sorts and they need to get a run too,” he said.

“We need to find the right grade for them and the only way to do that is to race them. There weren’t exactly any standouts today even though I had a big team – and Bazinga was certainly not one of the leading hopes!

“But he’s won and that is all that matters. Some of the others ran well too, and I’m overall pretty happy with today’s performance.”

Shafiq admitted his level of confidence going into the race was not exactly sky-high, but the New Zealand-bred gelding has again risen to the occasion when the least expected.

“I was not very confident before the race. I reckoned it was a bit tough for him,” said the 2011 Singapore champion apprentice jockey whose last win incidentally came aboard the same Bazinga on April 21.

“I know this horse very well, but he’s very funny and it’s very hard to predict how he will run at times.

“From the 800m, I kept waking him up and he just kept going. Those who went fast early and were in front were dropping back and that was when he finished very strongly.”