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After having had the foot on the till for a while, Sacred Guru finally opened his account in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1400m on Friday night.

The Savabeel five-year-old was a one-time winner in New Zealand, but had not been able to hit the line first in a dozen of starts at Kranji.

He did come close with four seconds, with three consecutively at his last three starts, but that winning post was not an elusive target anymore on Friday.

Overcoming a wide gate, Sacred Guru ($68) was able to sneak into the perfect spot in sixth in transit, one off the fence before peeling out wide for his run at the point of the turn.

In a few bounds, he raced past Quadcopter (Marc Lerner) who had rocked up the first to greet the judge at the 300m, before comfortably staving off a late double-barrelled assault from Dazzle Gold (Troy See) and Salvador (Noh Senari).

Sacred Guru darted home to go and post a one-length win from Dazzle Gold with Salvador third another neck away. Quadcopter ran fourth another neck away.

The winning time was 1min 22.78secs for the 1400m on the Short Course.

Winning trainer Mark Walker, who trains for the winning owner Dato Yap Kim San of Raffles Racing Stable, said there were no two ways about who truly deserved the kudos for Sacred Guru’s first win on local soil.

“He got the right ride. He drew out and was one off the fence after 200m,” said the Kiwi mentor.

“Benny is riding like a demon these days. He’s the one who won the race without a doubt.

“But the horse has been consistent, too, just a little unlucky. It’s good for Dato Yap as he’s been a great supporter of Singapore racing and deserves everything he gets.”

Woodworth was at a race-to-race double after he had successfully combined with Daniel Meagher with his only runner of the night, smokie Invincible Ryker one race earlier (see other report) to bring up his 2019 score to 10 winners.

“He’s got good gate speed, but from the draw, we couldn’t lead,” said Woodworth.

“I didn’t want to be caught wide in a speed battle. At the top of the straight, he gave a good kick for a nice win.”

Thanks to his four previous seconds, Sacred Guru already had a tidy sum in the bank, with the win swelling it to just a tick below $70,000 for Dato Yap.