Large Te Akau Singapore Team Engaged

After last week's successful international weekend of racing New Zealand trainer Mark Walker is not resting on his laurels on Friday.

After saddling War Affair to success in the Group 2 Aushorse Golden Horsehoe over 1200m last Friday night in front of international guests in town for the two big International Group 1 races last Sunday, Walker will saddle 18 runners at Friday afternoon's public holiday meeting.

Walker has runners in 10 of the 12 races on Friday afternoon and has as many as three starters in two of the races.  But the trainer said while his numbers may be large this weekend they will ‘drop off' the following weekend when he heads to the Gold Coast in Australia for the annual Magic Millions Sale of broodmares, weanlings and yearlings.

​Walker currently heads the Trainer's Premiership Table for 2013 with 34 winners from 329 runners at a strike-rate of 10.33% and leads fellow New Zealand trainer Laurie Laxon by five winners.

He added that with 60 boxes allocated it enabled him to have the ‘fire-power' on a more regular basis.

“After being here a few years now I've got 60 boxes, but at the same time a lot of lower grade horses in my stable,” said Walker.

“Because of that I've got to race them where the races are available and those races are available this weekend, races that are suitable for a lot of my team. We'll be a lot quieter next week as I'm off to the Gold Coast for the sales, so really it's just the way it has worked out.”

Walker said he wasn't afraid to send his horses to the races. Sam Chua with 274 runners for the season is second in the ‘runners to the races' this year.

“When I first got up here I watched Laurie Laxon for the first couple of years,” said Walker. “He's not afraid to run his horses and I've followed suit.

“The way to win is to get your horses in their right grades and that's the beauty of the Singapore Turf Club as the owners are subsidised to run their horses so it's not costing them a lot of money and there is also good prizemoney on offer.”

Walker pointed to the galloper Affirmation, who lines up in the $55,000 Open Benchmark 67 Stakes over 1000m on Friday, as a good case.

“Back home in New Zealand he'd be a hurdler by now,” said Walker. “Last year he won four races from six starts at one stage and went from Class 5 grade to winning a Class 3.

“He's more than paid his way up here but he's probably found his mark for the moment. The 1000m is probably a bit short tomorrow but he'll be able to win again once he gets back to Class 4 grade.”

Walker said he was especially satisfied with the victory War Affair in the feature two-year-old event last week and is heading to the Gold Coast in the search of more likely two-year-old types for next year.

Even though Walker won the ‘final' last week with War Affair and picked up one of the prelude races along the way, the gelding wasn't eligible for any of the bonus money on offer as he is New Zealand-bred.  Bonus money for the Singapore Golden Horseshoe Series was paid to Australian-bred horses sold through one of the two Australian auction houses - Inglis or Magic Millions.

“With all the bonus money that is available for the two-year-olds we'll go to the Gold Coast and see what we can find,” said Walker.

“We've had a bit of luck buying horses out of this sale before, horses like Tell A Tale and Princess Coup, so hopefully we might be able to find a few nice ones for the two-year-old races next year.”

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