Newcomer Nimble lived up to his handy barrier trial form with a gutsy debut win in the $60,000 Class 4 Premier race over 1000m on Friday night.
While his Perth record of one win (from 10 starts when known as The Shoe) in country Pinjarra might not give way to an abundance of optimism, trainer Leticia Dragon was still confident - as was jockey John Powell - the Patronize four-year-old would not be out of his depth on debut.
In two barrier trials, Nimble ran fourth at the first before winning the second one last Thursday.
Nimble (John Powell) off to a smart debut win at Kranji on Friday.
The other factor which had Dragon upbeat was the good company he raced when up in city grade at Ascot, exposed form which should put him in good stead for a Kranji baptism of fire at Class 4 Premier level.
Ridden with great confidence by Powell, Nimble came off his third spot once breakaway leader Lim’s Sincere (Troy See) started to come back to the pack at the 600m.
In one fell swoop, Nimble darted straight to the lead – a move which some might have thought a little premature, especially as he was first-up (his last race in Perth was in January) and Effortless (Matthew Kellady) and Ironside (Erasmus Aslam) were also making stacks of ground late, but the winning post came up soon enough for him to fall in by three parts of a length from Ironside with Effortless third another head away.
Sent out the $19 favourite, Nimble clocked the smart time of 58.88 seconds for the 1000m on the Polytrack.
“We watched his replays in Perth and he’s actually a horse who comes from off the pace,” said Dragon.
“There was some speed in the race and I told JP to let him jump well and let him settle where he is comfortable.
“He rode to instructions and it’s paid off.”
Powell said that after taking a backseat off the strong clip upfront, Nimble was cruising so comfortably approaching the home turn that there was not much point holding him back anymore.
“I know he was very fit after two trials. That’s why I got him going early from the corner,” said the Australian jockey.
“If it was a 1200m race, I wouldn’t have gone so early. He did a good job first-up, he ran good time.”
