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The relatively new Jason Ong-Joseph See combination got off to a flyer on Easter Sunday when they landed the chocolates in the first two races with All We Know and Bruce Alnaughty.
The two Singaporeans are not at their first pairing, but the early double couldn't have come at a better time to seal a working relationship that had been tightened up in recent times.
"I'm very pleased for Joseph as he has been helping me out a lot at the stables. He works very hard, and is riding with a lot more confidence these days," said Ong.
See, who had not got on the board since Special Ops - also prepared by Ong - saluted at the 2021 curtain raiser on January 3, was also delighted the budding partnership is bearing fruit.
"Jason has been supporting me, and I was only too happy to help him with trackwork in the morning when he asked me," said See.
"Hopefully, there'll be more winners to come for us."
See said the win onBruce Alnaughty ($43) in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1400m was trickier to carve out.
"My intention was to lead, but when I saw Louis (Beuzelin on Al Meqdam) come around, I let him go. I was quite happy to sit third one off the leader," said See.
"I was afraid my horse would start pulling like he did before, but he was very relaxed. In the straight, I was looking for a way out, and I saw a gap which was just enough for me to go through.
"Once we cleared that, he quickly made ground and won a nice race."
Bruce Alnaughty attacked the line resolutely at the 300m to go and defeat Ace Sovereign (John Powell) by one length with Classic Thirtysix (Troy See) third another three parts of a length away. The winning time was 1min 23.21secs for the 1400m on the Long Course.
Ong revealed it was at the owner Joe Singh's insistence that he stepped up the three-year-old colt by Adelaide to seven furlongs.
"He's still a colt, he actually ran very well at his first start when third. At his next start, he drew wide, and he was a bit flattened by that run," said Ong.
"I gave him a spell and he's come back good. I wasn't sure if I would run him or not over 1400m, but Joe knows the horse well. Because he is by Adelaide (Coolmore 2015 Cox Plate winner), he told me he should go over more distance.
"I wasn't sure if he could win, but I knew he would measure up."
Ong was, on the other hand, a lot more confident with All We Know ($23) in the opener, the $30,000 Class 5 Division 1 race over the Polytrack mile.
"This horse has been performing well since he came to us from Alwin Tan," said Ong.
"I've put a lot of condition on him. I expected him to run well in Class 4 last start but he didn't measure up, but today in Class 5, I was quite confident he'd run well."
Again, See showed he knew his way to the winning post when he launched the Animal Kingdom four-year-old at the right moment upon straightening.
In a few bounds, All We Know (who recorded his only previous win with See as well) gapped his rivals to go and score comfortably by two lengths on Sun Conqueror (Noh Senari) with Zoffspeed (Krisna Thangamani) third another half-a-length away.
The winning time was 1min 39.72secs for the 1600m on the all-weather.
Just like Ong, See fancied All We Know better than Bruce Alnaughty, but he added a lot was contingent on the chestnut's mood as well.
"I was quite confident All We Know would run well. He did well at his last start when he got checked," he said.
"He's a horse who comes from behind, but you can't force him to take up a spot or he'll be flat out after that.
"Today, he was keen to go and he won easily."
Raced by Bee Lee Phing, All We Know has now taken his stakes earnings over the $65,000 mark from his record of two wins and two seconds from 14 starts while Bruce Alnaughty picks up his first win cheque at his fourth start to boost his prizemoney record to around $49,000 for Singh.
