Young ends season on high note
He saddles four on Friday and Sunday
He got moving late but he certainly closed in well.
We're talking about trainer Young Keah Yong - or KY Young, as he is better known in racing circles.
When he saddled Mon Energy to win the second event at Kranji on Sunday, it confirmed one thing. The hard work is paying off.
It's never easy to win on debut but that's what Mon Energy did. And for Young, it would be the end of a great weekend.
He had saddled his fourth winner over the final two days of racing.
A treble on Friday and this one on Sunday.
Young's treble on Friday came courtesy of Gratus in Race 2, Sierra Conqueror in the sixth and Pegasus Junior in Race 7.
It was just a week earlier - on Dec 2 - the 40-year-old punched in a double with My Dreamliner taking out the Restricted Maiden event and Ol Mate Buzzer winning the fifth.
As for Ol Mate Buzzer, who was ridden by Michael Rodd, it was a race-to-race double which served to put on notice Young's ability to get his horses to hold form.
But what really caught the attention were the victories of Sierra Conqueror, My Dreamliner and Mon Energy.
All three won on debut which tells us one thing. In the season to come, keep a close watch on Young's newbies. They could be the way to go.
If ever there was an easy winner, it had to be My Dreamliner. He won by 2½ lengths.
A bargain buy at just $8,000, the son of Dream Ahead, could - like his name does suggest - be flying high in 2019.
In these days of big spending at the sales, Mon Energy was another bargain buy, costing just $24,000. But, like they say, it's not how much you pay - but what you're buying.
And in Mon Energy and My Dreamliner, the owners seem to have found that one thing that's invisible in the sales ring - desire.
Indeed, to Mon Energy's owner, Singapore Athletics chief Tang Weng Fei, his three-year-old must now look like a gold medal.
Like his rider Vlad Duric said: "Mon Energy is going to be a nice bread and butter horse."
Young began training in July last year, making this his first full season.
But he has been no stranger to the business.
He started out as a syce with trainer Charles Leck. That was in 2001 and he had a stint with David Kok before becoming assistant trainer to Desmond Koh in 2012.
An unassuming chap, Young doesn't clonk you over the head in those post-race interviews. Instead he's quiet and, like when reaching for a pearl in an oyster, interviewers sometimes have dig hard for a gem or two.
It's like he prefers to let his deeds to the talking.
This season, Young saddled 35 winners, 22 seconds and 25 thirds - and he's just getting started.
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