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Often referred to as the unkindest cut, a gelding operation turned out to be the key to Ablest Ascend showcasing his true ability on Saturday.

Underwhelming at his first two runs as a colt at Kranji, when his cantankerous ways proved costly at the start, the son of Charm Spirit put in a much more professional turn in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden (1200m) this time around.

Jumping on terms, Ablest Ascend  ($19) was sent straight to the head of affairs by jockey Louis-Philippe Beuzelin, who then threw out the anchors to give his mount a nice breather midrace.

River Brilliance  (Azhar Ismail), who had been on Ablest Ascend's hammer from the start, issued a strong challenge in the straight, but Beuzelin still had a lapful after the soft lead they enjoyed.

Responding to the Frenchman's strong urgings, Ablest Ascend found a second wind to go and finish in advance of the fast-finishing Lim's Dreamwalker (Simon Kok Wei Hoong) by half-a-length. Though green as grass, Steven Burridge's Lim's Dreamwalker flashed home down the middle of the track to just pip River Brilliance for second place by a nose.

The winning time was 1min 10.83secs for the 1200m on the Long Course on turf.

"He took a lot of improvement from the gelding operation," said Clements.

"The trainer (Trevor Sutherland) rated him highly in Australia. He raced twice there and didn't show as much.

"He didn't run very well at his two starts here either. We decided to geld him and he has really furnished out since.

"He ran two lovely trials where he showed a lot of speed, and he showed that again today in his race.

"Louis rated him very well. Turning for home, the horse had a lot of petrol in the tank after they had a soft lead, he was sitting up at the top of the straight."

Clements was not too disappointed with his second runner, the better-fancied Tigarous (Vlad Duric) who momentarily looked like he would finish the best when he came with a storming run from midfield, but the Irish-bred peaked on his run to finish fifth 3 ½ lengths off his stablemate.

Suffering from dehydration after the race, Duric was subsequently stood down from the remainder of the meeting. Following that withdrawal, the current leading jockey will be sweating on his 11-win lead on Ruan Maia not getting whittled down during the course of the day.

"It was too short for Tigarous. He's looking for further," said Clements.

"He did it the hard way out wide. He ran on but he was one-paced in the end."

The Clements-Beuzelin pair went on to saddle a race-to-race double when Iron Ruler ($19) took out the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over the Polytrack mile with consummate ease.

With that 41st winner, Clements pulls on the yellow jersey as he wrests the lead from three-time Singapore champion trainer Mark Walker (40 winners).