Trainer Lee Freedman's English import Minister has shown improvement since his "rushed" unplaced debut outing in the first leg of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge - the $175,000 Group 3 Silver Bowl over 1,400m - a fortnight ago.
The King Power Stable-owned galloper won his trial by a big margin on Thursday morning to give Freedman a glimmer of hope, despite being pressed for time to prepare the horse with the three-race series being moved from June-July to February-April.
With a shorter buffer to work with, Freedman had to reshuffle his plans and play it by ear.
He has entered Minister in the second leg - the $400,000 Group 2 Stewards Cup over 1,600m next Friday - but is electing for an alternative path.
As for the final leg - the $1 million Group 1 Singapore Derby over 1,800m on April 18 - it would be just a bonus if he gets there.
"Notionally, he was a miler in England. Based on that, he could be a Derby horse, but we'll have to see how things pan out for him," said the Australian Hall of Famer.
His unplaced first-up run to Bold Thruster in the Silver Bowl confirmed Freedman's fears that the Listed Windsor mile winner was not fully screwed down.
The firm underfoot conditions were another negative.
"It hasn't been the simplest of tasks to get him ready, especially when the 4YO series was moved. That upset our plans, similarly for the 3YO series," said Freedman.
"It's hard to get these English horses ready. He got held up in quarantine and he was behind time.
"We had to rush him, he had two trials. We didn't set out to run him in the first leg, but it came up, so it was more 'shoot and see'. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out.
"He ran well but he got the stitch in the end. He felt the ground and got jarred up.
"Those UK horses are not suited by the new environment here. They have problems settling with the track and the heat, even if I must say he did get used with the heat quite well.
"Because of the track, I'm thinking of running him in a Polytrack race for Class 3 at the end of the month."
Freedman could see encouraging results from the regrouping strategy with his 31/2-length trial win under new partner John Powell.
"We had to give him a good hit-out as he needs some pressure. He won but let's not forget it was also made up of Class 4 horses," said Freedman.
Powell jumped off happy with the way Minister dictated from start to finish in the 1,000m trial.
"He went well, he travelled well throughout. At the top of the straight, I slipped him some more rein and he hit the line nicely," said the Australian jockey.
"It was a smart trial. I didn't look back to see by how far he won."
