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A well-rated front running ride by jockey Joseph Azzopardi saw Sun Marshal hang on gamely to snag the $70,000 Class 3 race over the mile on Friday.

Taken straight to the head of affairs, the Lee Freedman-trained Sepoy four-year-old was able to dictate his own terms to the race before going all out upon straightening.

For a while, it looked like he would shake off the attention of his most immediate threat, Chocolats (A'Isisuhairi Kasim) rather comfortably at the 350m, but Centenary Diamond (Michael Rodd) and Star Emperor (John Powell) were storming home late while he was starting to shorten strides.

The winning post, however, came to the chestnut's rescue. A neck split the trio for the judge, with Sun Marshal ($20), Centenary Diamond and Star Emperor running 1-2-3.

Raced by Macau businessman Cheng Ting Kong, Sun Marshal  clocked the winning time of 1min 35.16secs for the 1600m on the Long Course.

Azzopardi, who has been a regular visitor to the winner's circle (he was bringing up his eighth Singapore winner though he missed one month in his three months of licensing period), was rapt with the result even if he had to earn every cent of his riding fee.

"I was happy we found the front. He's a tough horse, but he doesn't give a lot," he said.

"He had to do some work to get there. He was then able to go through nice sectionals.

"To his credit, he's tough, he's a soldier. He will improve from that win and I can't see why he can't become a Derby horse."

A winner over 2000m in Kranji Stakes C company at his only previous Singapore hurrah, Sun Marshal did boast another win over the same mile-and-a-quarter distance at Caulfield in Australia (March 2018) when trained as Han Xin by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott before he was imported to Singapore. He also scored over the mile at his maiden win in Ballarat three weeks earlier.

Slated as the third and final Leg of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge, the Group 1 Singapore Derby will be run over 1800m on July 21.