The Selangor Turf Club hosted a nine race program on Sunday the 17th of November and despite a mix of results, it ended up being a landmark day for the new trainers amongst the STC training ranks as both D Kok and CW Choi opened up their respective Malaysian training accounts with Pacific Charm (D Kok) winning the eighth race and Wealthyness (CW Choi) in the last.

Pacific Charm, under KC Tham, showed plenty of early speed but allowed the former Macau runner, Handsome Joyful to lead the field heading into the turn and was able to settle no more than a length off him. Turning for home, Pacific Charm was always travelling the better of Lim’s Sinai who was the late challenger but will have to settle for another placing. Former Singapore trainer, D Kok will certainly be delighted with the win after saddling 12 runners since moving to Malaysia and has now broken the ice. Hopefully this will be the first of many.

Every cloud has its silver lining as despite all the rain throughout the day, the last race also produced an exciting chapter for another new trainer as former Macau trainer CW Choi saddled his first winner in Malaysia in his first meeting. With seven runners on the day, the Choi stable had two third placings as well as a second before winning the final race with the former Macau horse, Wealthyness. There was never any trouble as Wealthyness went start to finish in front under KC Low and ended up winning by a comfortable margin of six lengths.

Barring the last two races, the rest of the meeting produced three trainers having a double on the day including N Selvan (God’s Gift & Big Bad Mama); S Siva (Sun Palace & Noah Khan) and S Dunderdale (So We Fight & Surfie Boy). J Leck completed the card in race 4 when Berry Bliss bounced back to his best form to end the winning streak of Gulf Eagle who certainly was not disgraced in third in his toughest task to date.

Racing returns to the Selangor Turf Club next week Sunday on the 24th of November.

Devon Pretorius