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Young trainer Jason Ong’s recent prolific run keeps chugging along with a terrific treble courtesy of Special Ops, Hosayliao and Universal Empire on Sunday.
Bruce Marsh's former assistant-trainer has been hovering around the midtable area for most of the way into the current season, but an uptick in winners in the last couple of months has propelled him to the top tier.
Sunday's big haul sees him climb another three spots into fifth place, jointly with Hideyuki Takaoka on 20 winners, but one rung up from the Japanese handler on a countback for seconds.
The third-season trainer is still some way off the two heavyweights Mark Walker and Michael Clements, both sharing the lead on 49 winners, but the consistency, especially in Polytrack events (15 winners this season), can give him plenty of reasons to smile about.
True to form, he kept the healthy all-weather strike rate on the up with Special Ops in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 2 race over 1200m and Hosayliao two events later in the $30,000 Class 5 Division 1 race over 1600m before Universal Empire wrapped up the memorable day in the Lucky Last, the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1200m.
Clearly the one of the trio with more upsides, Special Ops (Danny Beasley), who races in Ong's father's purple and orange stars silks made famous by champion galloper War Affair, probably gave Ong the biggest thrill.
The Reset five-year-old dropped back worse than midfield but quickly made headway turning for home to score going away with two lengths to spare from Good Luck Charm (Wong Chin Chuen). Ong's second runner King Zoustar (Juan Paul van der Merwe), who was making a bold bid for a third win on the bounce, lost no admirers with third place another 1 ½ lengths away.
Special Ops ran the Polytrack 1200m in 1min 10.72secs to ring up his third win from 16 starts that also produced seven placings for prizemoney in the vicinity of the $175,000 mark for the Special Ops Stable.
"I was really happy with Special Ops leading into today's race, especially after he ran a strong 1100m at his last start," said Ong.
"Credit to Danny Beasley who has given me a lot of feedback that helped me train this horse better. For example, he told me he's ready to go and doesn't need too much work.
"Danny rode him beautifully. The horse learned from his last start over 1100m, and was a lot closer to the speed this time.
"When he saw daylight, he put the race away nicely."
Ong said the mildly-fancied ($78) Hosayliao's neck-win from the fast-closing Resurgence (Marc Lerner) was a lot more tradesmanlike, but he was actually just franking his last-start winning form when Zyrul Nor Azman happened to be in the plate as well.
The Shaft six-year-old was not too outpaced throughout. As Zyrul slipped some rein from the 600m, they slowly improved from their stalking spot in sixth to be poised to strike upon cornering.
Most of the early protagonists could not quite match him for stride when he struck the front, but the coast was not all that clear. Held up for a run for a few fleeting seconds, Resurgence (Marc Lerner) loomed as a major threat when he emerged, but sheer courage and the line coming up right on time saved Hosayliao.
Hidden Promise (Hakim Kamaruddin) snuck up on the inside for third place another half-length away. The winning time was 1min 39.06secs for the Polytrack mile.
"I think the light weight (51kgs) helped him as it wasn't an easy field to beat," said Ong.
"There were a few challengers in this race. We just wanted him to get a bit closer in the running, and Zy rode him very well."
While Hosayliao may not be a world beater by any stretch of the imagination, he does mean the world to Ong.
When known as Sothistheone, he handed the Marcus Oldham College graduate his first career winner on September 20, 2019. While he doesn't win out of turn, despite his name change to the more exciting Hosayliao (a popular Hokkien expression which can be loosely translated as "very good") he has suddenly racked up two wins in a row at his last two starts to take his record to three wins and 12 placings from 45 starts for stakes earnings in excess of $160,000 for the Angie No 2 Stable.
In the last race, Universal Empire ($31) made full use of his barrier No 2 to kick up along the rails and outgun leader Happy Friday (Yusoff Fadzli) at the 400m before tenaciously hitting the line to hold the resuming Field Marshal (Krisna Thangamani) off by a neck. A similar margin away, Doc Hudson (Hakim Kamaruddin) just beat Mega Gold (Juan Paul van der Merwe) into third place by a head.
A five-year-old by the legendary Black Caviar's full brother Moshe, Universal Empire clocked 1min 11.61secs for the Polytrack 1200m and has now taken his record to four wins from 15 starts for around $145,000 in stakes earnings for Mr Chen Yong Whay.
