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Surge lived up to the promise shown at his Kranji breakthrough with a second consecutive win in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1100m on Saturday.
The Leticia Dragon-trained son of Exceed And Excel was rewarded for his sheer will to win for the whole length of the Polytrack straight.
When race-leader California skipped clear at the top of the lane, looking well on his way towards handing South African jockey Ryan Munger his first Kranji success, Surge ($19) appeared to be caught on the backfoot.
All eyes were then cast on odds-on favourite Sacred Gift (Benny Woodworth), who had peeled off three wide, but the two-from-two winner was also making heavy weather of it.
Surely, Munger's ice-breaker was all stitched up, but John Powell had other ideas. Under the Australian veteran jockey's urgings, Surge kept whacking away as they went gnawing away at the margin. The pair lunged at the line with a nose advantage eventually going to Surge, the horse on the outside.
Beaten by the three-wide trip, Sacred Gift kept on gamely for third place another 1 ¾ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 5.6secs for the 1100m.
Surge races in the same maroon colours sported by other smart sorts like Nimble, Glasgow and Mach, those belonging to the MMW Stable of affable owner Miller Wun, who is always a hoot with his quotes.
At the Singapore Derby post position draw ceremony last year, he famously remained bullish about both Nimble's and Glasgow's chances even though they drew poorly. The same infectious optimism was on show on Saturday even after Surge had to stretch every sinew of his body to land the spoils by the barest of margins.
"I was always confident he would win. Good, I got some angbao (red packet) money," said Wun.
Dragon was on the other hand heaving a huge sigh or relief as she walked down to lead in her third winner for the year.
"He's a progressive horse and there were a few nervous moments in the last bit," said the Singaporean trainer.
"I will run him over more ground next."
While the four-year-old gelding clearly has a lot of potential, some of the kudos in Saturday's win had to be shared with Powell.
The 49-year-old jockey gave his younger rival – Munger, who at 24, is about half his age – a sample of what he can still do in a tight finish, even if to him, there was nothing to boast about.
"This horse is going quite well. He's had three starts and has won two," he said.
"We didn't expect him to beat Sacred Gift based on form, but he scored a good tough win. Before the corner, I thought Sacred Gift would pass us, but Benny couldn't get him going.
"We then had California left to beat, and at first, I thought we couldn't get past him. We didn't get past, bar the last stride."
A one-time winner at Warwick Farm (1200m) from 10 starts in Australia when known as Osorno and trained by James Cummings for Godolphin, Surge has already amassed local stakes money around the $55,000 mark for the MMW Stable.
