KUALA LUMPUR - Apprentice jockey Syafifie Zailuddin was on fire at Sungai Besi on Oct 25, when he booted home a career-best haul of five winners.
The bonanza brings the Ipoh-based jockey's tally to 18 for the season, 11 adrift of leading apprentice Jerlyn Seow on 29 wins.
"I was confident of riding two winners today but five was totally unexpected. Still I am grateful for the results," said Syafifie, who is indentured to Kevin Coetzee.
"I shall strive to improve my riding and win more races."
Adding even greater merit to his prolific day was the fact that the first three of them were all big-priced winners, including Hasten ($136) who inflicted the first defeat on the hitherto unbeaten Fright in the Class 3 sprint over 1,020m.
Both horses were up in class, with Fright following up his double in Class 4 with a runaway win in a Max Two race earlier in October. He was backed down to odds-on favouritism to extend his run.
Hasten also had an easy win in Class 4 on Oct 12 - his third win in 12 starts in Malaysia, after crossing over from Singapore (when trained by Steven Burridge) with two victories at Kranji.
But, despite his decent record, the son of Hellbent was unfancied in a market dominated by Fright.
The Simon Dunderdale-trained Brazen Beau four-year-old, however, gave some ominous signs his charmed run could be threatened.
Normally a brilliant beginner, Fright began only moderately even if he quickly made his way to the front under his regular partner Khaw Choon Kit.
Stop The Water (Shazmin Sudin) joined him at the 800m and they led from Billy Elliot (Andre da Silva), Hasten, Bintang Sixty-One (Mohd Zaki) and Dancing Light (Nuqman Rozi).
Stop The Water headed Fright momentarily soon after, but Fright quickly regained control and led into the straight clear of Stop The Water. Billy Elliot was next followed by Hasten, who was nicely tucked on the rails.
Fright pulled away to lead by two lengths from Billy Elliot at the 200m with Hasten looking for a run on the rails. Stop The Water came under pressure soon after entering the straight.
Billy Elliot closed the gap to half-a-length from Fright at the 100m. But, on the rails, Hasten was just starting to quicken and soon it was three in a line.
In the tussle to the post, Hasten finished best to win by half-a-length from Fright with a similar distance to Billy Elliot.
"The boy (Zyafifie) rode a nice race," said trainer Richard Lines.
"The horse is obviously in good form after his last-start win and we gave him a chance with the light weight (53kg compared with Fright's 59kg)."
Asked if he thought the horse could go up to a higher class, Lines said: "Winning form is good form and we will take it one race at a time."
Syafifie said he just had to keep the five-year-old together while in transit.
"He (Hasten) jumped well but could not match the early pace of the other horses," said Syafifie. "So I saved him up for a challenge in the straight."
The 26-year-old jockey, who has now reached a career tally of 50, first struck on Singha Bay ($123) for trainer Wayne Lim in the Class 4B sprint over 1,150m.
Following his win on Hasten, he teamed up with Lines again to produce another upset win on Kim Emperor ($108).
He went on to win on Sousui ($64) for trainer Frank Maynard and Radetzky Marsch ($25) for Sharee Hamilton.
