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Laurie Laxon emerged victorious in the battle of Singapore’s leading trainers as his classy galloper Daniel came up tops in the Korea Racing Authority Trophy race on Sunday.

The loss for Alwin Tan, who now trails his Kiwi rival by two wins as the two men are locked in a thrilling contest for this year’s premiership, was compounded even further as his star galloper Captain Obvious recorded a ‘Did Not Finish’ in the $125,000 Kranji Stakes A race.

The popular grey eight-year-old, who has captured 16 victories during a stellar career that has seen him win in Malaysia, Dubai and Singapore, now faces an uncertain future after he bled near the end of the 1200m contest.

While the prospects look bleak for the old-timer, the horizons appear full of possibilities for the younger grey gelding, who collected back-to-back victories after saluting in an Open Stakes race (1400m) last month and has been tipped as a potential Group 1 contender in the coming months, with his connections eyeing the $500,000 Group 1 Panasonic Kranji Mile on October 5.

“It was a very good win by the horse today and we’ve all certainly got a high opinion of him and will probably target the Kranji Mile for him,” said assistant-trainer Shane Ellis, speaking on behalf of his boss who is currently overseas. “I’m sure Laurie would have been very happy with the way he ran.”

And why not, given the show Daniel (Saifudin Ismail) put on as he exploded past Indicio (A’Isisuhairi Kasim) over the final furlong to cross the winning post with two-and-a-half lengths to spare as Mr Big (Noh Senari) finished third another half-length adrift. The winning time on the Short Course was 1min 9.85secs.

Laxon has now collected 43 winners this term, with Tan, who had led the standings through the first half of 2014, now slipping to second with 41 winners. This was the eight-time champion trainer’s 15th victory since June 1 as he has turned the screw and upped the pressure on his Singaporean rival, who has managed just nine winners in that same period.

Lending a helping hand to Laxon has been Saifudin, whose three rides aboard Daniel this year has produced two winners and a second and the veteran Malaysian hoop was delighted with his association aboard the New Zealand-bred gelding.

“He’s one of the best horses I’ve raced,” said Saifudin. “At the 500m I just waited for the gap to open up on the outside and I knew I had plenty of horse in hand and he just sprinted clear of them so easily.”

The matchup between Kranji’s leading trainers and their respective hopes in this race (Daniel was the $11 favourite with Captain Obvious just behind at $19) looked to be a closely-fought affair initially as Captain Obvious made full use of his inside draw at gate two and bounced to the head of the queue and in a plum position next to the rails.

Daniel meanwhile, was making life hard for himself with the traffic around him and had to settle three wide and near the rear of the eight-horse field. But just when it seemed that Captain Obvious was going to defy Father Time and his rivals and launch his attack at the top of the straight, disaster struck for him and his connections.

Ironically, it was also at this point that Daniel made his own move as Saifudin released the handbrakes and gave his mount a squeeze and it was a decisive one and turned the contest on its head in an instant.

“The pace at the beginning was quite fast and I had to get him rebalanced,” he said. “But once I let him go I knew he was going to be too good for the rest of them.”

By Guillotine out of Tina, Daniel has now collected five wins and four seconds from 12 starts and brought his total stakes earnings for owner Phua Chian Kin to just shy of $400,000.