Dragonite overcame a horror gate to open his win account in the $20,000 Maiden race over 1400m on Friday night.

Drawn the furthest away in the 14-horse field, the Bushranger four-year-old jumped smartly to take up a prominent position from the get-go, albeit three wide punching the breeze.

But what saved him was the moderate tempo set by Good Warrior (Barend Vorster), allowing Dragonite to take a breather midrace before apprentice jockey Troy See popped the question at the top of the straight.

Dragonite (Troy See) works home manfully towards his maiden win on Friday night, picture Singapore Turf Club

Granted, it was visually not the most arresting sight ever seen up the Kranji straight as Dragonite plodded his way to the line inside the last furlong with the other protagonists not making much headway either, but credit to his tradesman qualities that saw him hit the line first with half-a-length to spare from Good Warrior.

The fight for third place went down to the wire with O’Reilly Star (Vlad Duric) sticking his head out for third place in a bunched-up finish. A similar margin separated him from Eastern Victory (Pregasam Dellorto) while Zulu Warrior (Glen Boss) ran fifth another short head away.

The winning time was 1min 25.47secs for the 1400m on the Long Course.

Winning trainer Alwin Tan said Dragonite ($38) had been showing encouraging signs of progress at his recent performances, but Friday’s outermost alley spoiled their mood.

“It’s great for GG Tan (Gim Guan) to have another winner. It’s been a while since he had one,” said the Singaporean handler.

“I was actually not very confident because of the wide barrier, but Troy made a good decision to settle him close to the lead, while getting him to relax nicely.

“The slow pace helped. I thought we had a good chance when I saw how he was coming in nicely into the race.

“He was travelling comfortably throughout which goes to show how good a judge of pace Troy is.”

The leading apprentice jockey – who incidentally widened his lead on the Singapore apprentice jockey’s log by five winners on reigning champion Wong Chin Chuen (17 versus 12) – said he did not deserve any credit as it was the favourable circumstances of the race that played into his hands.

“The plan from the wide barrier was to take him back and come across for cover,” said See.

“But he jumped so good that there wasn’t any point in strangling him. I took a sit behind the leader and luckily, he slowed up the pace or there was no way we would have won.”