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The Mareeba Mango was a classic case of the extra deal turning out to be the better deal going with his impressive second-up win at Kranji on Sunday.
The son of Snitzel was known as Batal in Australia where he was still a maiden in three starts for trainers Mick Price & Michael Kent Jnr and Sheikh Khalifa al Maktoum.
Trainer Lee Freedman happened to be keen on buying another ward of the Sheikh's at the time, Asateer.
But the Sheikh's bloodstock agents proposed Batal be coupled with Asateer as a package or it's a no-deal.
The Australian mentor agreed to the terms, and has been well rewarded for digging deeper into his pockets.
While Asateer, since renamed Super Invincible, didn't live up to his favourite tag on debut despite showing sparkling form at his barrier trials, Batal, who has been renamed The Mareeba Mango by his new Australian owners, followed up on an encouraging debut second to score a smashing win next time out in the $75,000 Distinctive Darci 2018 Stakes Restricted Maiden Division 1 race over 1200m on Sunday.
With Ruan Maia again riding him, The Mareeba Mango took advantage of his handier draw in three (last time jumped from 14 and was caught wide throughout) to settle in the box-seat behind race-leader Entertainer (Benny Woodworth).
They didn't loaf around upfront with Sky Eye (John Sundradas) serving it to Entertainer, leaving the outcome in little doubt when The Mareeba Mango was peeled out for his run at the top of the straight.
Once the $11 favourite was cued for his run, he just exploded away to go and space his rivals by a widening margin of four lengths. Speedy Missile (Hakim Kamaruddin) ran second with Entertainer holding on to third place another two lengths away.
The winning time was 1min 9.64secs for the 1200m on the Short Course on turf.
"He ran close to the class record (1min 9.56secs). Once he hit the front, he just kept going," said Freedman.
"He was raced by Sheikh Khalifa, and I was trying to buy Super Invincible from him at the time. He told me he would sell him as a pair with this other horse I didn't know much about, and now that horse has turned out to be pretty good.
"I sold him to a group of Australians, Ben Cleary, Bill Pearce, Doug Tynan and his father-in-law Peter Stevens.
"Peter is from Mareeba in North Queensland and is a mango farmer there, hence the name."
The win on The Mareeba Mango was the middle pin of a riding treble from the bang-in-form Maia, coming in the first three races of the 14-race programme.
The Brazilian jockey won the first race, the $30,000 Countofmontecristo 2019 Stakes Class 5 Division 1 race over 1200m, with $57 shot El Chapo for trainer Jason Lim and the third race, the $50,000 Infantry 2017 Stakes Class 4 Division 1 race over 1200m on the Polytrack with $13 favourite Moon Face for trainer Cliff Brown.
Maia has certainly kept up a rich vein of form after winning his first Singapore Group 1 race with Aramaayo in the Kranji Mile last Sunday. While three-time Singapore champion jockey Vlad Duric still holds a comfortable margin, Maia, who sits in second place, has cut it back to 14 winners – 39 versus 25 - with his early big haul.