Singapore Turf Club
Local apprentice jockey Ng Choon Kiat was already happy to be back doing what he knows best on Friday night, but the smiles just got wider when he burst through the rails with to win at his very last ride.
Mark Walker's apprentice jockey was out of the saddle for more than two months after dislocating his right elbow in a trackwork fall back in February. Ng was at his comeback meeting, pleasantly surprised to start with that he had been booked for four rides, never mind if none were among the movers and shakers as could be surmised from their three-figure odds, except for Cavatina (Canford Cliffs) who ran third in the opener.
Ng's last shot at glory was Lim's Reform (NZ) (O'Reilly) in the penultimate event, the S$80,000 Class 3 Division 1 race over 1000m.
Looking at the O'Reilly six-year-old's also-ran efforts at his last four outings, Ng thought one more spin around would do his bid to recapture his peak fitness no harm.
At the 300m when Lim's Reform began to spark up along the rails coming from near last, Ng suddenly thought he might not return home empty-handed after all.
Lim's Reform got up by half-a-length from Effortless (Reward for Effort). The winning time was 59.59 seconds for the 1000m dash on the Polytrack.
A gobsmacked Ng jumped off thanking the equally stunned connections from the Lim's Stable for that unexpected manna from heaven.
"I don't know this horse at all. I've never even ridden him in trackwork," said Ng.
"He dropped back and I was able to get a spot on the fence midrace. After that, he travelled okay but at the top of the straight, when I gave him a squeeze, he started to quicken quite good.
"I was really surprised but I'm also very happy to get my first win at my first night back. It's been tough with the elbow injury, but it's behind me now and I hope to get more rides in weeks to come."
Walker should be encouraged to give his apprentice jockey a few more leg-ups following such a faultless display.
"They got sucked up the fence. But I'm happy for CK as he just busted his elbow and it was his first night riding back.
"This horse was getting close to dropping in class, but you know these horses, they are always out there trying to win.
"He's six now and he's got his niggling problems, but Mr Lim (Siah Mong) is happy to take the cheque!"
Previously known as Damon, Lim's Reform is the veteran of 39 starts for Walker, scoring the last of his previous four wins in Class 4 company in July 2017. That fifth success has now seen the New Zealand-bred tip over the S$300,000 mark in terms of prizemoney. - STC