Bart Rice, who arrived in Korea at the end of last autumn, finally sent out a runner at Busan Race Park on Friday afternoon and he fond immediate success as that runner, Gyeongnam Sinhwa, won race 3.

The 37-year-old, who is the 3rd foreign trainer to be licensed in Korea, has put together a string of 22 horses since his arrival although – no fault of the trainer – they appear to be in varying states of race-readiness.

US import Gyeongnam Sinhwa (Keyed Entry) was himself making his racecourse debut and after being sent off at odds of 8/1, landed victory by a length under French jockey Jerome Lermyte, who was himself scoring only his 2nd win in Korea.

Rice’s other 2 runners on Friday were unplaced but his 33.3% strike rate will stand for some time. He doesn’t have any entires on Sunday and racing takes a break next weekend for the Lunar New Year holiday.