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A more settled Invincible Tycoon hung on by a short head to beat closest rival Cyclone in the $100,000 Rocket Man 2009-2012 Stakes (1600m) on Sunday.

Previously, the Steven Burridge-trained gelding had the tendency of rearing his head up in the early and middle part of the races, so his Australian handler tinkered with the gears and replaced the crossover nosebands with the shadow roll for the first time.

Overracing was an issue, but the five-year-old son of I Am Invincible was also unlucky in his runs, including being hemmed in in the straight before sprinting home for fourth to Kharisma in the Group 3 Rocket Man Sprint (1200m) three weeks ago.

All things seemed to work out well for Invincible Tycoon  after he jumped smartly and settled nicely in mid-field one-off the fence under first-time partner A'Isisuhairi Kasim. Stablemate Countofmontecristo (Mohd Zaki) set a quick tempo upfront before Mr Black Back (Krisna Thangamani) took over the lead at the bend.

Into the straight, the Malaysian jockey, better known as Harry, steered Invincible Tycoon out wide for the final assault. Under a few shake of the reins by Harry, the $27 shot galloped past Mr Black Back at the 200m, but with Cyclone (Ronnie Stewart) not going away on his outside, Harry had to throw everything in bar the sink towards the line.

Invincible Tycoon staved off the relentless Cyclone in the end. So Hi Class (Shafrizal Saleh) finished another two-and-a-quarter lengths away in third. The winning time of 1 min 33.91secs for the 1600m on the Short Course was also a new Class record, albeit still 0.3 seconds shy of the Course record set by Super Ninetyseven in 2013.

$12 favourite Cavalry, who had substitute rider Saifudin Ismail in the irons after visiting jockey Daniel Moor called in sick for the Lion City Cup meeting, raced positive on the rails from the start but the Group 1 Singapore Derby (1800m) runner-up knocked up in the straight and was eased out at the 150m. He was found to have bled after the race.

Burridge was relieved after the win and thought that the true run race was to Invincible Tycoon's advantage.

"It's the first time he had a trouble-free run for a while," said Burridge.

"There was a lot of pace on and he settled good. The race was run to suit him.

"I changed the cross(over) noseband to a shadow roll because he was overracing before.

"We'll see how he pulls up and we'd probably look at the (Group 1) Raffles Cup (1600m)."

Not to be confused with the first edition of the Raffles Cup run on March 25 and won by Lim's Kosciuszko, who also defended his title in the Group 1 Lion City Cup (1200m) on Sunday (see later report), the second running of the Raffles Cup makes the feature race the first Leg of the reinstated Singapore Triple Crown series and will be held on September 23.

The next two Legs of the famed series, the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (1800m) and the Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup (2000m), will be run on October 14 and November 11 respectively.

Harry knew before the race that getting the Lim's Stable-owned gelding to relax was instrumental to the win.

"He was nice and relaxed early, which was the key to his win," said the former apprentice jockey to Burridge.

"They say he can overrace a bit, but we believed the tempo would be there to help him.

"I was able to get a nice spot and slot in but when they slowed down the pace around the final bend, I was just focused on getting his momentum going.

"I think he can do it if he were to go to the Raffles Cup."

With that fourth win in 11 starts, Invincible Tycoon has taken his earnings to over $200,000 for connections.