Noah Khan rose from humble beginnings to conquer the big guns in the RM300,000 Equine Sanctuary Tunku Gold Cup at Sungai Besi today, thanks to a brilliant ride by Brazilian jockey Andre Da Silva.

And the New Zealand gelding (the first emergency acceptor) was only given a start after the course scratching of Golden Pegasus.

The big credit, though, must to go trainer Siva Kumar who nursed the horse to good health and brought out the very best from the son of Swiss Ace.

Da Silva was riding the six-year-old for the first time today and judged the pace to perfection.

Pacific Vampire set a brisk pace to lead by four lengths from Platinum Fort at the halfway mark. Arigato was three lengths further back with a simlar gap to Noah Khan.

Pacific Vampire was three lengths clear of Platinum Fort going into the straight. Arigato was still third but Noah Khan had narrowed the gap behind him.

The early effort began to take it toll on Pacific Vampire and started to shorten strides coming to the 200m. Platinum Fort and Noah Khan quickly raced up to him but Noah Khan began to open up in fine style and swept to the lead with ease.

Noah Khan raced away to win by 1-1/2 lengths with Antipodean flashing home second. Platinum Emperor also finished strongly to beat Platinum Fort for third.

“My instructions were to sit behind the pace, fourth or fifth,” said Da Silva.

“Although I was far behind the leader early, I was confident that the horse will finish well. I knew I had the race won from the 200m.”

It’s the second Group 1 win for Da Silva who also won the Penang Gold Cup on Lucky Magic last December.

Siva took over Noah Khan in the middle of last year after the gelding finished second in a Class 4 race but was found to have bled on returning to scale. The gelding was also renamed (from Magic General).

“When I took over, he (Noah Khan) had just bled and came to me with bad hoofs,” said Siva who obtained his A licence five years ago.

“I had to rest him and nurse him to health. He won his first start for me. That was in Class 4.”

“When he won again in Class 4 (on Nov 17) and defied a promotion to win his next run in Class 3 (on Dec 8), I told the owner (Moha Latiff) we have a good horse in our hands.”

The first big test for Noah Khan came three weeks ago when Siva entered him in a Supreme A race over 1200m.

Against top-notch opposition, Noah Khan trashed them by 5-3/4 lengths in a time of 1min 9.84secs. The second-placed runner that was Witnessimpact, no less.

“That win convinced me I have the horse to win the Tunku Gold Cup,” said Siva who was at his first Group 1 win.

“I feel all my years spent in the game has paid off.” 

Noah Khan stopped the clock at 1min 9.03secs today, one second outside the course record held jointly by Captain Obvious (2011), Forsa Eclipse (2019) and War Dragon (2019).

Noah Khan was unplaced three runs at three and managed a third (Avondale 1600m) in four starts at four in New Zealand before coming up to Malaysia.

He managed a win in eight runs for trainer Lim Shung You before Siva took charge of the gelding.