The son of Dark Angel won relatively comfortably by half-a-length but there were no less than five horses spread across the track at the furlong mark, setting up the drama over the concluding stages.

On jumping, King of Sixty-One (Bernardo Pinheiro) took on the roll of pacemaker as expected before Roda Robot (Jerlyn Seow) took up the bunny's role into the bend. The remaining six runners were not far away and from the 800m, jockey Bruno Queiroz started urging topweight Istataba to pick up speed.

Roda Robot was the first to feel the pinch at the 400m and the Tim Fitzsimmons-trained King Of Sixty-One took control of the race. His stablemates, $12 favourite Lightning Strike (Ryan Curatolo) and Saint Tropez (Daniel Moor) were descending quickly, but so were So Hi Class and Istataba.

It was still anyone's game with 100m to go and perhaps, the ground-saving run by Koh from barrier one made the difference late as So Hi Class ($72) did his best work over the final 50m before landing the spoils in the end.

2023 Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup (2000m) placegetter Istataba showed her staying credentials by gamely holding on for second over Lightning Strike and King Of Sixty-One, by a head and another head respectively.

The winning time was 1 min 48.42secs for the 1800m on the Long Course. So Hi Class' 10th win and 13 placings took his prizemoney to over $500,000 for owner Tan Aik Pheng.

While So Hi Class  has yet to win at Group level, the Jason Ong-trained gelding was always competitive, having also ran third in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Cup (1800m) three years ago.

That was a point not lost on one of So Hi Class' biggest fan: his winning jockey.

"He's such a fighter," said Koh, who has now won three times on the Irish-bred eight-year-old.

"It doesn't matter at what level. He's always competitive and tries his best.

"But Class 3 was probably what he needed to win today. His last two wins have been in this company and the rain helped him too.

"We also got a good run from barrier one in the small field.

"He jumped well and was able to take it easy mid-race and I knew he would have plenty left in the last 300m.

"When the other horses came beside him at the 200m, I knew he would dig deep because he's such a fighter.

"While it was close and the other horses all had a chance, my horse had a big heart.

"The trip (1800m) was probably his best too, so everything was in his favour today.

"Hopefully, I can stay on him (So Hi Class) for races like the Singapore Gold Cup (on 5 October) as handicap races over that distance suit him.

"He's one of my favourite horses to ride."

Koh was also very complimentary of Ong, who enjoyed a treble on Saturday with Super Bowl  ($28) in the Class 5 Division 1 race over 1700m and Per Incrown ($27) in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1200m.

"He's a good friend and a very good trainer," he said.

"He (Ong) knows a lot about horses and it's good to see him win so many races.

"I was happy when he won the (Singapore trainers') championship last year and hopefully, he can win again this year."

Ong's treble took his 2024 winning tally to 45, 18 ahead of trainer Daniel Meagher on 27.