Sent out at a prohibitive quote of $8, Italian Revolution's jockey, Vlad Duric, took luck out of the equation early when he let the three-year-old son of Caravaggio roll along to lead after pinging the gates.
Nimbus Cloud (Krisna Thangamani) moved to Italian Revolution's flank before turning for home with Star Express (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin) also handy, but when Duric asked the question early in the straight, the MA Racing Stable-owned gelding quickly put a couple of lengths on his rivals.
The race was all but over at the 250m when Duric eventually pulled the whip. With Star Express and Nimbus Cloud battling to make up any ground and second-favourite, Diaz (Manoel Nunes) getting caught up in traffic and not posing a threat, Italian Revolution went on to post a comfortable two-and-a-quarter length victory.
Star Express was solid on debut to hold second place by half-a-length over another debutant in Nimbus Cloud.
The winning time was 1 min 11.03secs for the 1200m on the Long Course and Italian Revolution 's first win in four starts took his prizemoney to over $80,000.
Winning trainer Shane Baertschiger had been keen to get him onto the grass track since late last year, so the first win at his first start on the turf did not come as a surprise at all.
"I had him (nominated) on the turf for the last meeting of the year (in 2022) and he couldn't get a run," said the lanky trainer they call 'Stretch'.
"I always thought he'd be a better turf horse. The breed seems to be better on the turf.
"He's been beaten by some pretty good horses. The first two (Flying Nemo and Sabah Ace) have come out and won again and I think the horse that beat him at his last start (Mykyta) is a pretty handy horse, so the form was there.
"(Jockey) Matty (Matthew Kellady) had done nothing wrong on him but he'd had three chances on him, so I thought I'd give Vlad a try and see how we go."
Baertschiger was also very pleased that a horse he purchased himself for A$72,000 had – thanks to the excellent prizemoney on offer in the Restricted Maiden races in Singapore - already paid his own for some of his most loyal owners.
"They (MA Racing Stable) have been my biggest supporter and I'm glad he won for them and got a win out the way early," he said.
"I bought him as a yearling in Melbourne for $70,000, so he wasn't expensive and I think he's won $70,000 in stakes money now, so he's paid for himself and whatever he does now is a bonus."
Duric was obviously very happy when he spoke to racing presenter Scott Bailey post race on how the race panned out.
"He sprung the gates really well from there (barrier seven), controlled the race and had no pressure," explained the four-time Singapore champion jockey.
"Stretch (Baertschiger) had talked about taking a sit on him and eventually, that will be the way to go, but this wasn't the race to do it today; it's a small field and we just tried to control the race.
"Going forward, he's definitely a horse that you could sit off in a high-pressure race because he's got a really nice turn of foot.
"He was good today because he pricked his ears for the first half so I had plenty of horse to come home with, but an ounce of pressure in front and I reckon he would have been vulnerable.
"I think he's a sprinting type from his mannerisms. He's a neat horse and he's going to win plenty of races."
Italian Revolution was only Duric's second win this year after Vittoria Perfetta on January 14, but when you consider it was only his sixth ride, he remains one of the punters' favourites in Singapore.
"Six weeks off (racing) doesn't help when you're my age. I struggle with my weight, but I chip away and these horses come along every now and then," said the Australian hoop, who booted home a double after Prioritize ($16) came from last to score in the $30,000 Class 5 race over 1700m eight races later.
"I'm happy to get my share of winners."
