David Kok’s duo run the show in KL trials
Mega Valor and Talkintalkin Power revel on the Selangor sand with authoritative wins
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Mega Valor (Ruzaini Supien) making winning look easy in the sixth barrier trial at Sungai Besi on Dec 23.
PHOTO: SELANGOR TURF CLUB
Brian Miller
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Even though he decided to give the last meeting of 2025 a miss by not fielding any runners at the Ipoh meeting on Dec 28, trainer David Kok was not about to let things slide.
The former Kranji conditioner, who is well known for saddling Smart Star to land the 2024 and last Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup (2,000m) at Kranji, was a busy man at the trials on Dec 23.
Represented by runners in four of the seven trials, his gallopers took out two of those sprints, easy as pie.
Mega Valor claimed the sixth – which was run on the sand track – by a massive six lengths, and he did it in a time of 1min 1.06sec. Talkintalkin Power then won the last trial.
Both times, senior track rider Ruzaini Supien was in the hot seat.
He hardly had time to rest on his laurels when the runners for the final trial of the morning were called to line.
The hoop must have enjoyed the “feeling of freedom” that last win Talkintalkin Power had given him when the son of Merchant Navy carved out a 10-length victory over the Jerome Tan-trained Lucky Baby (Akmazani Mazuki).
The five-year-old gelding was the last horse in and he stumbled out of the gates like a drunken sailor – giving the second last horse Lucky Baby a six-length head start.
But Ruzaini quickly got him going, and with 250m covered, he had caught up with the pack.
Striding out purposefully, he drew five lengths clear even before they reached the top of the home stretch and eventually won by the huge margin.
However, the early shenanigans meant he clocked a rather slow time of 1:03.09.
Kok will now be looking for a suitable race for Talkintalkin Power – who is unplaced in seven starts – to open his account.
Mega Valor was also the last to be loaded, but unlike his stablemate who messed up the jump out, he was the first one out.
However, the Bivouac three-year-old colt soon had company. When they made that sweeping left turn on the far side of course, he was in a line of four – the others being Achilles Pegasus (Aify Yahaya), Dontellmywife (Gordon Lim) and Release The Spirit (Jose de Souza).
Mega Valor opted for the shortest route home and, hugging the rails he was home and hosed by six lengths.
Achilles Pegasus stayed on for second, beating Release The Spirit into third.
It was Mega Valor’s first win in three trials since Sept 23.
Along the way, Kok sent him to the races thrice, and he took second twice. Perhaps we might see him run away from his rivals when Kok next sends him to the races.
Another one who caught the eye was Storm To Finish.
Trained by Ricky Choi Chun Wai, the son of Anders took out the fifth trial, beating Land Lover (Troy See) in a photo-finish.
He got the verdict by a short head in a heads-up, heads-down tussle for supremacy.
That, after holding down third spot at the top of the straight. Responding to some strong riding from Liang Xiaochuan over the concluding 400m, Storm To Finish got the win and was pulling away at the finish.
After winning two trials in July, the three-year-old gelding scored on debut in a Restricted Maiden race (1,200m) on Aug 17.
He made it two from two when winning at his next start in a Class 4B event (1,150m) on Aug 31.
However, he had to settle for fourth behind Kim Power at his last outing in a Class 4A contest (1,300m) on Sept 21.
Storm To Finish has since had a good break from racing. Since we know that he races well when fresh, he could be the one they will all have to beat first-up.
