Fresh from a hattrick of apprentice titles, Jerlyn Seow made a winning start as a senior rider when she piloted Pacific Angel to victory in The Selangor Heritage Stakes (Class 4B – 1020m) on the No. 2 track at Sungai Besi, the opening day of the 2026 season.

Pacific Angel, who landed unraced, showed consistency early last year, winning three races – all over 1020m on the No. 2 track, with his last success coming on Jun 1.

Pacific Angel struggled to regain his winning form in the second half of 2025 but showed that he was ready to bounce back with second-place finish to Banker’s Eightyone over 1150m last month.

Pacific Angel, trained by David Kok, was the first to break but The Wild Goal quickly headed him off making the turn out of the back straight.

Pacific Angel kept pace with the leader on his inside and was never more than half a length behind.

At the 200m, Pacific Angel levelled up with The Wild Goal, then went the better in the run home to win by 1-1/4 lengths. Cool Sixty-One finished strongly to beat The Wild Goal for second.

Seow made history by becoming the first female to bag the apprentice title in Singapore in 2023 and retained the crown the following year.

Crossing over to Malaysia, Seow was able to build on that success and rode 37 winners last year, finishing fifth on the overall table.

“Turning professional means I will riding freelance but luckily I still have the support and opportunity from (former master) trainer Jason Ong and (owners) Pacific Stable,” said Seow.

“I hope it (my turning professional) doesn’t make any difference in my career.”

Meanwhile, there was also a first-up win for Low Kang Cheng who returned to action after serving a nine-month suspension.

Low steered Big Bad Mama to lead all the way in the Wonder Malaysia Stakes (Class 4A – 1020m).

It was the Gingerbread Man mare’s fifth win over the course and distance but her first since January last year when Low also partnered her to victory.

Big Bad Mama had struggled to find her right form in the last 12 months and today’s success would be sweet music to the ears of trainer Nick Selvan who is recuperating after being hospitalised reently.

“I am very happy to ride a winner on my first day back,” said Low.

“I didn’t work the horse because the mare can be a handful during track work.

“But looking at her past records I was confident that she would travel well but I was surprised at how easy she won today.”