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Yearling purchase Takanini reaped instant rewards for trainer Michael Clements and his new connections after his debut win on Sunday.

The naturalised Singaporean trainer seems to have a knack for finding yearlings with great potential, including Group winners Prosperous Return, Tiger Roar, Big Hearted and the mare Celavi, who was sent to Australia early this month to become a broodmare.

Among the current string of 15 three-year-olds under his care, Ejaz, Petrograd and Taling Pling are being aimed at the Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge series, and Clements reckoned that Takanini could be a possible addition to his 3YO squad.

"I bought him privately as a yearling in Argentina and he's got some ability," said the Zimbabwean-born handler.

"We headed into the races today knowing that he would run well, but given he had no experience, we thought that if he handled the races well first-up, he'd be a top three chance.

"He stepped up to the mark and has a steady mind and brain on him. It's tempting to get another race out of him before the 3YO series but I don't think we have enough time.

"We'll see how he pulls up and probably look at getting him into a Class 4 race over the 1200m or the 1400m.

"If he wins another race and gets his ratings up, then we can consider the second Leg of the 3YO series for him."

The second leg of the 3YO series is the Group 2 Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic (1400m) which will be run on April 29, while the first and third leg are the Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint (1200m) on April 8 and the Group 2 Singapore Guineas (1600m) on May 20 respectively.

Donning the maroon silks with blue stripes of the new Takanini Stable in the $75,000 Restricted Maiden race (1200m), Takanini (Simon Kok Wei Hoong) began well from barrier three and sat in third behind leader Creative Dreams (Manoel Nunes) and Sweet N Sour (Jerlyn Seow).

As the field turned for home, Creative Dreams could not pull away from the pack, while $15 favourite Arya Pakuan (Calvin Habib) and Takanini started to issue their challenges at the 300m.

The Stephen Gray-trained Arya Pakuan, who was slow to begin, looked all poised to hand Habib his first win in Singapore after the pair found the gap between Creative Dreams and Sweet N Sour past the 200m, but the win was not meant to be as Takanini ($18) came motoring past on the outside.

Formerly known as Guillermo Key, the three-year-old son of Key Deputy got the upper hand one-and-a-quarter length ahead of Arya Pakuan, while Sweet N Sour hung on well to run third another short head away.

The winning time was 1 min 10.13secs for the 1200m on the Long Course.

Clements was glad to see Takanini Stable's only galloper, who was named after the southern suburb of Auckland in northern New Zealand, get on the scoresheet for the new connections but revealed that they were not first-time owners.

"I buy horses in Argentina and once they're ready, we bring them into Singapore and get owners to buy shares in them," he said.

"They are a group of locals and expatriates who had shares in horses previously, but this is the first and only horse they have with me now under their new banner.

"I offered the ride to (jockey) Marc Lerner first, but he decided to ride another horse (Always Together, seventh), so I approached Simon."

Takanini  was Kok's third winner for Clements this year, before the pair went on to score with the resuming three-year-old, Coin Toss ($11), in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race (1100m) six races later.

"Marc rode him (Takanini) at his last trial (ran third in trial no. 4 on March 2), and I only rode the horse at trackwork recently," said the talented Ipoh-born rider.

"We rode him positive out from the good gate. There's a nice pace, everything went his way and my horse was strong on the bridle.

"The Long Course also helped him to wind up. He can go longer but maybe not right now because he was still a bit green."

With that first win, Takanini has earned over $40,000 in prizemoney for connections.

Besides Takanini and Coin Toss, Pacific Angel ($43) also claimed the $50,000 Class 4 Division 2 race (1100m) in Race 3, before $9 favourite Ejaz got up in the $50,000 Class 4 race (1200m) to wrap up the meeting, handing Clements a four-timer.

He now sits on top of the trainers' log on 14 wins, four more than Tim Fitzsimmons, who bagged a double with Mimosas ($12) and Hero ($34) on Sunday.