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After knocking on the door for a while, Special Ops finally broke through for his first win in the $75,000 Maximus 2018 Stakes, a Restricted Maiden race over 1600m for four-year-olds on Saturday.

Out of the money only once (on debut) at his five previous starts, the consistent Reset four-year-old was right on the dot this time around, taking the full benefit from a well-rated frontrunning ride by champion jockey Vlad Duric to rout his 10 rivals with consummate ease.

Four lengths were the winning margin on Alexander Horatio (A'Isisuhairi Kasim), the only contender who tried to test the $8 hotpot throughout with Tiger Leap (Simon Kok Wei Hoong) third another half-length away, but it could have been more dominant had Duric not lifted the foot off the pedal inside the last 50m once he knew the race was all stitched up.

Special Ops  stopped the clock at 1min 36.33secs for the turf mile on the Short Course.

Winning trainer Jason Ong said he had given Duric carte blanche as far as tactics went, supremely confident his charge (who carries the same purple and orange stars silks as his former champion War Affair) would break his maiden tag on Saturday.

"I left it to Vlad as how to ride him as he knows him well. It was the race for him to win today, the mile," said the Singaporean trainer.

"He has been showing ability since his debut. He's a straightforward horse, he's been running well, but it's just the way the races panned out.

"Hopefully we can see more of him after that first win. It was great that the Singapore Turf Club has come up with such a race for four-year-olds as there were no racing opportunities for Restricted Maidens."

Duric, who steered Special Ops to a short head second in a Restricted Maiden race over 1400m two starts back on October 31 at their only previous association, was glad he had found the key to make him go one better.

"I kept it simple today as he was stepping up to the mile," said the Australian jockey.

"I was rushing the other day. He was on a more suitable trip today.

"He's a genuine little horse and he deserved the win."

With the minor prizemoney accumulated from his four placings, Special Ops has thanks to that first win brought home close to $90,000 for the Special Ops Stable.

While Special Ops gave Duric the perfect response to Ruan Maia's win in the opener ($30,000 Pennywise 2019 Stakes, a Class 5 race over 1100m) aboard Sky Eye ($8 favourite) to bring his lead on the Brazilian challenger in the Singapore jockeys' premiership back to eight winners, the race was suddenly given a more exciting twist when a clearly very pumped-up Maia added two more wins in quickfire succession – So Hi Class ($15) and Mr Showman ($6) in the next two races, the $50,000 Nova Strike 2017 Stakes, a Class 4 Division 1 race over 1600m and the $20,000 Daniel 2016 Stakes, an Open Maiden race over 1200m respectively.

After Race 4, the leaderboard now reads Duric still in front on 65 winners but with Maia ominously looming larger in the champion's rear-view mirror on 59 winners.