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The Leticia Dragon-trained Surpass Natural became the first horse to score five wins in a row this season after he prevailed in the $70,000 Class 3 race over 1100m on Friday night.
The Elvstroem four-year-old was incidentally maintaining his unbeaten record at Kranji, an achievement that adds even more merit to his growing status as a racehorse.
Mark Walker's Sacred Croix reeled off a four-in-a-row earlier in the year but stumbled at the fifth start. Surpass Natural l's stablemate Nimble also pulled off five wins on the bounce, but the first two wins were recorded last year.
"It's not easy to win five from five. I think he's the first one to do that this year, I'm very proud of him," said Dragon.
"Nimble also won five in a row, but he did it over two years. Tonight was a big test for Surpass Natural, he did it the hard way, I thought he would be softened up, but he still quickened up and kept going all the way to the line.
"I will now look for a Class 2 race over 1200m for him. I hope he can get a weight where JP can ride him again, and let's hope the unbeaten run keeps going."
Ridden by regular partner John Powell, Surpass Natural, who was punted down to solid $10 favouritism, jumped smartly from his middle draw to take up a handy spot outside main threat Kiss Your Song (Vlad Duric).
The duelling pair eye-balled each other all the way to the top of the straight where Surpass Natural gained the ascendancy rather easily. His clear superiority quickly came to the fore as he drew clear for Powell before holding off a stout challenge from Cliff Brown's mare Ararat Lady (Yusoff Fadzli), to whom he conceded 8.5kgs.
Runner-up at his last five starts, Kiss Your Song again toughed it out right until the end, picking up another placegetter prizemoney, but in third place this time, another two lengths away, just beating off Sacred Sham (Nizar Mohammad) by a short head. The winning time was 1min 4.31secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.
"Full credit to Leticia for having made this horse win five races from Restricted Maiden company all the way to Class 3. She's done a really great job with him," said Powell who has partnered Surpass Natural at all his five wins.
"He had not raced for six to seven weeks, but he trialled very well two weeks ago. He's won up to 1200m, but he's heading up towards 1400m.
"I still believe he will be better with blinkers on. He was waiting for Ararat Lady tonight, but he dug deep.
"He's either better off chasing or when something comes at him, then he fights back."
Surpass Natural has already made around $170,000 in stakes earnings for the Sky Eye Stable.
