ANIKI, A LATE SILVER BULLET FOR 70YO KHOO

From forlorn hope at netting elusive feature win, veteran trainer suddenly gets a shot

- Michael Lee

The timing of the injury could not have been more inauspicious, to say the least.

Following two consecutive wins, Auspicious King was about the only bright spark in Leslie Khoo's skeleton yard of eight horses.

In the well-bred son of Per Incanto, the doyen of Kranji trainers might even hold a long shot to a box left unticked since he moved from Ipoh to Kranji in 2008.

A tendon injury suffered in a barrier trial on March 26 snuffed out all these hopes, though. Vets' prognosis: four months' rest.

Auspicious King was never quite mentioned in the same breath as the 3YO top guns like Ace Of Diamonds, Bakeel or Lim's Bighorn, but to Khoo, he was his "sayang" (Malay for darling).

"He's my best horse. So I had to 'sayang' him to bring him back, but it'll be for Malaysia," he said.

From the last batch of threeyear-olds Khoo squeezed through the window period after the June 2023 closure announcement, Auspicious King was the standout.