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Promising three-year-old Big Hearted lived up to his short-priced favourite tag to duly claim the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1200m on Saturday, but not without giving his many backers a few heart flutters.

As expected, the noted backmarker was dropped out at the tail by first-time partner Simon Kok Wei Hoong, but the alarm bells started to ring loud when he was seen still spotting the leaders around 10 lengths at the 600m with the Singapore champion apprentice jockey still not getting a wriggle-on.

Upfront, race-leader Winning Legend (A'Isisuhairi Kasim) was still going strong while Axel (Benny Woodworth) was also mounting a solid challenge, but the race complexion was turned on its head as soon as the even-money favourite started to sprout wings on the extreme outside.

To their credit, Winning Legend and Axel did not just retire from the race, as they hit back with a stiff response, but in the end, they could muster little against Big Hearted 's superiority.

Hitting top gear, the Hallowed Crown three-year-old went on to greet the judge with one length to spare from Axel who beat Winning Legend to the runner-up spot by a head. The winning time was 1min 12.25secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.

Winning trainer Michael Clements admitted to a few nervous moments in the early part of the race, but was glad logic prevailed.

"This is the right way to run him as he's always had a strong finish. It was a bit nerve-wracking, though, to see him drop so far back," he said.

"But he has a great turn of foot and I was still confident he would come up with the goods.

"He took it easy for two weeks after his last start until the end of December. He is a fit horse and I just had to keep him ticking over.

"The Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge is his goal. We will decide whether he has one more run or he goes for a short let-up after today's run."

Kok, who was at his second win of the year after opening his 2020 account with Royal Pavilion on Wednesday - incidentally both coming for Clements - said a few pointers from Big Hearted's regular partner Vlad Duric explained his decision to hold the button for so long.

"I watched his replays and I know he can jump awkwardly. I spoke to Duric and he told me to ride him patient as he has a good turn of foot," said Kok, who just returned from a successful one-month stint with David and Ben Hayes & Tom Dabernig in Melbourne during the December break.

"He is a big-striding horse and I just let him find this balance. I had to trust him and he quickened up his strides very well.

"I have no doubt he will become a very good horse."

Big Hearted has now put together a handy record of four wins and two seconds in seven starts for prizemoney around the $180,000 mark for the Falcon Racing No 7 Stable.