Walker Eyes Singapore Group 1 with Trio

Date: 23 Jun 2018

Walker Eyes Singapore Group 1 with Trio


The Singapore Turf Club reports:

Two-time Singapore champion trainer Mark Walker hopes to fill a glaring gap on his already glittering resume this Sunday - a first Group 1 success at Kranji.

As surprising as it may seem, the former five-time New Zealand champion trainer who has won all before him back home, including 20 Group 1 races, has yet to open his account in that department in the eight years he has been training in Singapore.

He even annexed one such race overseas, in Australia, the TJ Smith Classic at Eagle Farm, Brisbane with Darci Brahma in 2005, but the ones (eight of them since the upgrade of the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in 2016) in Singapore had eluded him.


Elite Invincible (Vlad Duric) spearheads Mark Walker's charge towards a first Group 1 win

With no fewer than three runners, including quite possibly the favourite, Elite Invincible, Walker will have his best chance at cracking it for that first Singapore Group 1 win in the $1 million Charity Bowl (ex-Patron's Bowl) over the mile this Sunday.

An Irish-bred by Archarcharch, Elite Invincible captured the first Leg of the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge, the Group 2 Stewards' Cup (1400m) - incidentally Walker's third Group 2 win at Kranji - on June 10 and will now tackle the middle pin in a bid towards the clean sweep. The last Leg is the $1.15 Group 1 Emirates Singapore Derby (1800m) on July 15.

If Walker's presence in Group 1 races has been few and far between, it's because he won't bother unless he has the right horse(s). You can then rest assured Lim's Regard and Kingsman have joined Elite Invincible on Sunday not to make up the numbers.

“I had a lot of good horses in New Zealand when I won Group 1 races there. It hasn't quite been the case here,” said Walker, a winner of 482 races at Kranji, including 11 at Group level, in only eight seasons.

“For some reason, I've had mainly bread and butter horses in Singapore. I've won a lot of races, but I haven't had much quality.  It's just nice to have the quality of horses this year and I'm looking forward to my three runners on Sunday.

“Even if I don't get it this time, it's probably a matter of time before I win one. You just have to stay patient and positive in this game.”

Walker's main hope of breaking his Singapore Group 1 hoodoo obviously lies in Elite Invincible, an honest stakes winner in England (one win at Kempton Park on the all-weather mile) who then lost no marks at Group level in Dubai when prepared by Marco Botti as Qatar Man.

There was a slight concern about the second Leg coming up a week too soon on the back of the rescheduling of the Derby, but Walker was relieved to see the Elite Performance Stable-owned gelding has thrived further instead of peaking too soon.

“Elite Invincible was very fit and forward for that first run in the Stewards' Cup. I didn't want to be too hard on him and flatten him,” he said.

“We've got to be careful, even if horses do take natural improvement from their races.  I am very happy with his condition coming out of that race. He won the race at 514kgs and he did 516kgs on Tuesday.

“Vlad (Duric) was also very pleased the horse has maintained his form.”

Walker is, however, not putting all his eggs in one basket, even if his other two contenders are likely to start at longer odds.

“Lim's Regard was always meant to be a Derby horse. I had a good chat with (racing manager) Mick Dittman and a four-year-old doesn't get many chances at a $1 million race,” he said.

“It's either a Class 3 race worth $80,000 or a $1 million race. We thought we'd have a throw at the stumps.

“I'm putting the visors on him, but maybe it won't work, but I have to try something to find an extra 2 ½ lengths to his performance. They can't win if they stay in their box.  I haven't discussed with Mick how to ride him, but I would imagine he would be near the pace.”

The Red Giant four-year-old's last win in a Kranji Stakes B race over 2000m came off a daring ride from French jockey Ryan Curatolo. Taking the lead from the get-go, Lim's Regard kept broadening the gap further down the back and by the top of the straight, it became increasingly clear he had caught his rivals napping as he went bolting up by just under four lengths.

Nooresh Juglall partners Lim's Regard for the first time in the Charity Bowl while Craig Grylls is back aboard Walker's third runner, Kingsman. The Kiwi jockey rode the son of Darci Brahma once, finishing out of the placings.

Grylls replaces Duric who was aboard Kingsman last Friday at his fourth place to Winning Cause in a Class 2 race over 1600m. The 2017 Singapore champion jockey is naturally sticking with Elite Invincible, but he did voice an opinion that swayed Walker in going for the quick back-up for the Te Akau Racing Stable-owned Kingsman.

“Vlad gave a very honest assessment of his ride on Kingsman on Tuesday morning. If you watch the run, you will see the first two had got away and he began a long sustained run,” said Walker.

“He went to the outside and at the same time he was flushed out wider when Nooresh (Winning Cause) came out. They still did well to run fourth only 0.9L behind.  It was a split-second decision, but these things happen. Vlad gets it 99 times out of 100 right, but he was critical of his own ride - more than I was, actually.

“I've been thinking about the Charity Bowl for Kingsman for a while. If he had won his last race, he would have got a run; a fourth made him look average, but he was not beaten far off.

“I told Vlad the owners were very keen to run him, and he gave me his feedback and told me he would be worth having a crack, and there was nothing to lose as he felt the horse would have won if he had stayed in last Friday.”

While Elite Invincible and Lim's Regard have all but booked their Derby tickets, Walker will wait on Sunday to decide if Kingsman will join his two stablemates.

“I'll wait and see for Kingsman. Anything past the mile is a question mark,” he said.

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