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When the barriers came out on Wednesday, trainer Shane Baertschiger looked away in dismay, bracing himself for another day in the doghouse.
From 10 runners across seven of the 11 races, only From The Navy (6) andAtlas (3) had drawn decent gates, the rest were all in double figures.
Winless since Galaxy Star saluted on May 15, the lanky Australian trainer affectionately known as Stretch was cursing his rotten luck at the barriers because he was quite confident he was going in with some good bullets to snap the mini run of outs.
If Baertschiger had been told he could still saddle at least one winner, he might have believed it, but a treble right off the bat in the first three races would definitely have been stretching it, to say the least.
The outcome of the first three races proved that it's sometimes best to ditch the form book and just leave it to the horses to do the talking.
"On Wednesday, I saw my 10 runners' draw, only two were drawn better than seven. I told myself I was done for," said Baertschiger.
"And here I am winning the first three in a row, but don't ask me if I have another chance for a fourth winner later on because they're still drawn bad!"
Baertschiger shot a quickfire double in the first two events with two well-supported runners, From The Navy ($18) in the opener, the $30,000 Class 5 Division 1 race (1200m) and King Albert Park ($22) in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race (1100m).
He completed the rout from the least fancied winner of the three, Kiss Your Song ($87), who actually posted the hardest-fought win in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 2 race (1100m), bravely staving off a dual attack on either side from Mark Walker's pair of Man Of Mystery (Jerlyn Seow Poh Hui) and Brutus (Wong Chin Chuen) to prevail by half-a-length from Man Of Mystery.
Pindus (Krisna Thangamani) ran on late to pip Brutus for third place by a short head. Ridden by Matthew Kellady, Kiss Your Song, who scored the last of his previous four wins around a year ago, clocked 1min 05.21secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
Stakes money for the Your Song six-year-old has now risen to just a tick under the $400,000 mark with that fifth win, along with 16 placings from 41 starts.
"Kiss Your Song is a hard horse to call. Two weeks ago, I thought he had a chance, I put the blinkers on, and he pulled his head off," said Baertschiger.
"Today, I took the blinkers off and he still pulled his head off, he's a hard-going horse, but Matty knows him well. He does 90% of all his gallops, it's good for him he won on him today and got a double, too.
"On From The Navy, he rode the rails and got the job done."
A long-time loyal servant of the Baertschigers (Shane's father Don in the old days, too), Kellady indeed doesn't often get the kudos he deserves, but after also partnering the first pin of Baertschiger's treble, From The Navy, he was able to notch a rare double of his own.
The Ipoh-born jockey enjoyed a rails-hugging run on board the Hinchinbrook four-year-old throughout before overhauling Star Empire (Oscar Chavez), who was the one being hailed the winner for most of the straight.
Half-a-length split them with the fast-closing Fast And Fearless (Iskandar Rosman) taking third place another two lengths away. The winning time was 1min 11.02secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
From The Navy was registering his second win in 14 starts for stakes earnings that have now gone past the $55,000 mark for the Ronaldo Stable.
Baertschiger's race-to-race double came in fairly identical fashion – sit and sprint, except that King Albert Park (Danny Beasley) had to do it tougher three wide punching the breeze outside race-leader Illustrious (Thangamani).
When Illustrious opened up from the 300m, many were caught on the backfoot, including King Albert Park, but under Beasley's persuader, the Ocean Park three-year-old manfully chipped away at the margin to eventually catch Tim Fitzsimmons' grey and dominate him by three parts of a length.
New US filly Rocketship (Wong Chin Chuen) passed her first test brilliantly with a third place another one-and-a-quarter lengths away. The winning time was 1min 5.17secs.
With that first win cheque, King Albert Park has now amassed around $40,000 in stakes for the Aramco Stable, the same owners of Baertschiger's Group 1 winners Aramco and Aramaayo.
Baertschiger recognises some upsides in their new ward, but put his hand up for mistiming his debut six weeks ago, even if to the untrained eye, a third place only half-a-length off the winner Wawasan seemed to be full of merit.
"At his first start (Open Maiden over 1000m), he looked disgraceful, his coat wasn't right. I was actually ashamed for bringing him to the races that day," said a contrite Baertschiger.
"I then changed his feed and spaced his races by six weeks in between runs. He was much better today and looked a treat in the parade ring.
"He was three wide the whole way, but he was also three wide at his first run. The way he finished off, he is definitely looking for more ground – 1400m to 1600m."
