Sunday, 25 November 2018: Mohd Zaki could not be a happier man at the moment – and it may even get better next year with wedding bells ringing in the distance.

Bounceback Ability winning the CLASS 5

A couple of years ago, the Malaysian jockey felt a little at crossroads. Rides had dwindled, let alone winners, the future looked bleak.

If he scraped through with a three-month licence renewal, it was a welcomed breather.

But the 38-year-old jockey kept chipping away, and even if he is not among the most fashionable jockeys at Kranji, his hard work and self-belief has got him out of the doldrums.

While his hauls had been in the single-digit region in the last three seasons, it has spiked to 13 winners this year, with almost half supplied by his former master Hideyuki Takaoka, including the latest winner in Friday’s opener, the $20,000 Class 5 race over 1700m, the aptly-named Bounceback Ability ($49), his only ride of the night.

The gutsy back-off-the-canvas win came off the good news this week he had been renewed for another 12 months in 2019 – the first time he has ever been granted the maximum extension allowable in Singapore.

“This year has been very good. I have ridden quite a few winners and my licence was renewed for one year,” said Zaki.

“Thank you to the Singapore Turf Club for giving me the opportunity to ride here for another year. My family is also very happy I got a one-year licence, as I have a mother and brother to feed back in Kelantan.”

The filial son may have to ride even more winners with the family growing very soon.

“I’m getting married next year,” said Zaki. “My mum will choose my wife.”

Before Zaki walks down the aisle, he showed for now he knew his way to the winning post better, especially aboard frontrunners like Bounceback Ability.

Well known for his knack to make such bowl-along gallopers run for him, he was again at his best summing up the New Zealand-bred four-year-old by Pour Moi after they jumped to the lead from their awkward alley.

It, however, looked like game over when Bounceback Ability ’s better-fancied stablemate Galaxy Express (Marc Lerner) drew on level terms in the home straight and seemingly with the better momentum.

But Galaxy Express could not quite deal the final blow, as he stopped once he hit the front. That was when Bounceback Ability lived up to his moniker.

Knuckling down to the task at hand, he gnawed his way back to reel Galaxy Express back in by a neck with Avengers Hero (Mark Ewe) third another short head away. The winning time was 1min 47.41secs for the 1700m on the Polytrack.

“Boss told me to go forward. He knows that is my style and he thought it would suit this horse,” said Zaki.

“He is a one-pacer and at the top of the straight, I gave him a few whacks so he could hopefully open up. He looked beat but we were lucky the other horse shifted out.

“Thank you to the boss, again. I did tell him ‘arigato gozaimasu” at the lead-in – that’s the only Japanese words I know!”

Takaoka did reciprocate his former apprentice jockey’s gratitude with a few English words of appreciation of his own at the return to scales. The Japanese handler said the drop in class was the key to the win.

“He was running in a lower class and the low weight (54.5kgs) also helped,” he said.

“Zaki is good with frontrunners. He’s shown it again tonight.

“I’m also happy the horse won as it was the first win for a new owner, Mr Tsuyoshi Kuroiwa. It’s always nice to have new owners winning for the first time.”