Troy See’s decision to ignore a sore foot following his pre-race fall from Dash on Friday night paid handsome dividends with a race-to-race double two days later at Sunday’s opening two events.

The current leading Singapore apprentice jockey hurt himself when a highly-strung Dash decided to lighten up his load on his way to the barriers. See could not stay on, could not get his foot out of harm’s way, but was glad it wasn’t as bad as he feared.

“Dash was fresh, he swung around and I fell off. I could actually hear a crack when he stepped on my foot, tears were coming out of my eyes!” recounted See. 

David's Sling (Troy See, No 9) outsprints Centurion (Craig Grylls) to get on the scoresheet, picture Singapore Turf Club

“But he then stamped over that foot again, and I think that might have put the bone right back in place! Anyway, I was okay after that, nothing I could not bear with.

“It’s still a little sore, but I was fit enough to ride. That was the first thing I thought of when I fell off, ‘oh no, I’ve got good rides on Sunday’, especially those two.”

The winning pair the Singaporean lad was referring to was Thoth Warrior for Young Keah Yong in the opener, and David’s Sling for David Kok in the very next race.

After making good headway at his recent runs, Thoth Warrior ($12 favourite) finally opened his winning account at his 14th start in the $20,000 Class 5 race over 1000m. The Conatus three-year-old came from a handy spot in the running to fire away to his first win, beating the long-priced Kaiser Bright (Nuh Komari) comfortably by one and a half lengths with old stager Cool Cat (Barend Vorster) third another neck away.

The winning time was 1min 0.89sec for the 1000m speed dash on the Polytrack.

David’s Sling’s ($27) win – also a maiden victory but at his third start only – was arguably harder to carve out after he got off to a tardy getaway. But See was equal to the task as he gradually had his sluggish mount warming up from the rear, improving around the outside from the 800m to the whole length of the straight before getting the verdict right on the line.

Centurion (Craig Grylls) was downed by a neck with Smooth Operator (Zuriman Zulkifli) swooping down from the clouds to pip High Limit (Alan Munro) for third place by a head, another 2 ¾ lengths away. The winning time was 1min 12.71secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.

Odds-on favourite Grand Knight (Vlad Duric) was in an ideal striking position but was left wanting when the question was popped. He ran fifth more than four lengths off the winner.

“David trained David’s Sling very well. He gave him two good runs on turf and as he’s a Lemon Drop Kid, the same sire as Maximus, he put him on Polytrack today and it’s paid off,” said See who is also Maximus’s regular partner.

“It looks like I get along well with those Lemons - sour but good!”

Kok said he had asked Singaporean-born US-based bloodstock agent Mel Ezekiel to scout for a Lemon Drop Kid progeny. Not only Ezekiel ticked off the shopping list with a promising buy, but he also chucked in a cheeky name as a lovely freebie!

“Maximus is doing so well here and I wanted to get a Lemon Drop Kid myself. Mel came up with this horse and the name too, David’s Sling!” said Kok.

“He went okay on turf but as Maximus is better on Polytrack, I decided to run him on Polytrack today, and he won a nice race.

“It’s great for this group of local owners who are racing a horse for the first time.”