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Debutant Excellent One surprised his camp when he saluted at the very long odds of $764 at his debut in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race (1200m) on Friday.
Ridden by apprentice jockey Koh Teck Huat, the newcomer had not shown enough in his work to give his handler Tan Hor Khoon very high hopes of a forward run from the Happy Happy Stable-owned gelding, let alone a winning debut.
“He ran a pretty good race today and the light weight probably helped but it was an unexpected win as he didn’t show much in his trackwork and trials,” said Tan.
“This is his first time racing on turf and I think he prefers turf more as he doesn’t really liked the kickback from the Polytrack.”
The Onemorenomore two-year-old began well to settle close to the speed once he jumped out of the gates, settling just beside race-leader Aloha (Mohd Zaki) with $19 favourite Special ID (Oscar Chavez) third three wide. In the home straight, Excellent One and Special ID were the only two who kicked clear of the pack inside the last 300m.
The favourite backers cheered when Special ID got the upperhand but to their sheer dismay, the longshot crawled his way back in to regain the advantage before driving to the line to score by half-a-length with Rafaello (Barend Vorster) another one and three-quarter length behind. The winning time was 1min 10.33secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
“I was surprised he ran so well today. I think he’s a good horse and I would like to thank the owner and trainer for letting me ride him,” said Koh. “HK told me to try and lead, if not then settle for a position that I am comfortable with.
“I feel that this distance and up to 1400m would be suitable for him.”
Tan shares similar sentiments as Koh regarding the step-up in distance but decided to put a lid on such plans for the time being.
“I won’t increase the distance for now as he’s still quite young and green but I have the feeling that he has the makings of a miler,” said Tan.
“I told Koh to try and lead but if another horse wants to lead, let him go and we will take a seat."
Tan also felt that it was a little too early to set any plans in stone as he needs a couple more runs to know the bay gelding better.
“He’s just two and he’s still very green. I will enter him in more turf races in the future,” said Tan.
“But I will also enter him in some Polytrack races just to see how he handles it. As he’s quite new and he has a long way to go,I will see how he pulls up before deciding which race to enter him. So, no big plans at the moment."
