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A Class 5 Division 2 race is nowhere near in the same league as a Perak Derby, but trainer Jerome Tan for one would be hard-pushed to split them after Friday night
Heavenly Hand is no champ by any stretch of the imagination either, but the Exceed And Excel six-year-old mare will go down in record as the Singaporean’s first-ever winner in his own backyard.
Tan, 51, was granted his Singapore Turf Club stables – at his third try – from January 1, a dream that began from the day he left his native Singapore to cross the Causeway to Penang to start off as a syce for trainer Cecil Robert around 20 years ago.
Heavenly Hand - one of 16 horses (mostly ‘hand-me-downs’ from other fellow Kranji trainers) in his budding stable, with only Pakatan Warrior to have joined him from Penang - being only the fourth runner he was saddling at Kranji, it is fair to say Tan is a man not only intent on realising his dream, but living it out to the full.
“It’s good to have my first winner so soon,” said Tan, who held a trainer’s licence in Penang from 2009 to 2018, during which time Mr Ambassador’s victory in the 2012 Perak Derby stands the tallest among his 190 winners up North.
“The mare hung on well for the win. She had two trials here, and did very well at her second one – I was quietly confident she could be my first winner.
“She was meant to run two weeks ago (at his maiden meeting on February 22), but she was ballotted out. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it was a Class 5 at the top division.
“It was a much weaker field tonight.”
The former Hideyuki Takaoka-trained two-time winner actually had “Jerome Tan’s first Kranji winner” written all over when she took the drop four lengths off the duelling pair of Mr O’Reilly (Noh Senari) and Bring Me Joy (Glen Boss) shortly after the start.
Into the straight, Tan and his Enorme Stable entourage could pop the champagne already when Heavenly Hand collared the weakening leaders before drawing clear. Lucky Boy (Chan Wei Sheng) could be the only party pooper as he let down late, but the night belonged to Tan as Heavenly Hand fell in by three parts of a length.
Lucky Boy settled for second place with Bohemian (Amirul Ismadi) third another 2 ½ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 13.13secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.
Now that the ice is broken, Tan can relax a little, but he knows that was only the first step to a long journey ahead.
“I have 16 horses for now, but I’m not rushing them. We have to keep working hard,” he said.
“I have a few babies among them, but they will need a couple of months before they are ready to race.”
Saifudin Ismail was delighted he was the winning jockey behind Tan’s memorable night.
“I’m happy for Jerome. This can only encourage him for the future,” said the Malaysian veteran jockey.
“I’ve never ridden the mare before, but I trialled her and she was good in both of her trials.
“She showed a good turn of foot in the home straight.”
Heavenly Hand has now taken her record to three wins and four placings from 34 starts for stakes money that have now rolled up to around $80,000.
