Mark Walking the Talk

The Singapore Turf Club's Michael Lee reports:

Premiership leader Mark Walker will be pinning his hopes on a big team of 24 runners this weekend, including Sunday's leading Lucky Stable duo of My Lucky Strike and Indian Jade to stay at the top.

The Kiwi trainer (67 wins) currently holds Michael Freedman (61 wins) at bay by a six-win margin, a status quo over the weekend after both saddled one winner apiece (Q Nine Magic for Walker and Spanish Bay for Freedman). Recent Panasonic Kranji Mile winner (with Stepitup) and 10^th title chaser Laurie Laxon is slightly off the pace in third place with 56 winners, just ahead of Alwin Tan (52 wins) and Steven Burridge (50 wins).

With 19 race meetings left in the season, it may well go down to the wire among this leading quintet, with Walker, Freedman and Laxon the frontrunners.

My Lucky Strike (Manoel Nunes) will go over his pet distance of 1000m this Sunday.

Walker, a five-time New Zealand champion trainer, for one is doing his best to hang in there, more so as he has yet to land a local title since his arrival in 2010. He has nominated 11 runners on Friday and an even bigger squad on Sunday, 14 which will however be stripped of at least one come race day, Clutha Lad in the Open Benchmark 97 Polytrack sprint over 1000m but will still leave him with My Lucky Strike and Indian Jade to extend his premiership lead.

“They're both in very good form but I guess of the two, My Lucky Strike will be the first chance,” said Walker.

“He had a freshen-up since his last win (Kranji Stakes B race over 1000m on August 7) and trialled very well (second) last Tuesday. He's been unlucky over 1200m but he's never lost a race over shorter although he's giving away weight to a lot of good horses this time.

“Indian Jade may find this a bit sharp but he is the second chance anyway and I still expect him to run well. Clutha won't run as he is trialling on Thursday.”

Among the “good horses” Walker felt are well in on weights compared to the 59kgs My Lucky Strike has to shoulder, last-start winner Olympic Anthem, Italian Job and Bellwether would probably rank up high there. The first two carry 53.5kg while Bellwether has only 51.5kg on his back.

Jockey Manoel Nunes will stick with My Lucky Strike while Walker's apprentice jockey Shafiq Rizuan will jump aboard Indian Jade only for the second time in his 17 runs that has produced four wins, including the last three over turf up to seven furlongs.

Though My Lucky Strike has up to now raced exclusively on Polytrack, Walker said he was not loath to testing him over turf soon.

“I was thinking of running him on grass in the Landex Cup on November 1. It's over 1200m and being a set-weight penalty race, I worked out he would be on 52 kgs,” he said.

He has also targeted that race previously known as the Luzerne Cup for another one of his smart horses, Jimmy Rea, who failed to score first-up last Sunday.

“I was not disappointed with Jimmy's run at all. The winner (Spanish Bay) had all the favours,” said Walker.

“He's a real frontrunner and getting the inside draw is like gold, while my horse was posted three wide and there was no speed in the race. It all depends on the tempo at times.

“Imagine we had the reversed scenario, it could have been a different set of results. In saying this, the winner is also a very good horse, and we should not take anything away from him.

“Jimmy will also be going for the Landex Cup and I will probably then look at the EW Barker Trophy for him later. Hopefully he gets in with around 52kgs.”

The Group 2 EW Barker Trophy over 1400m is a handicap race run on November 13, the highlight of the Friday meeting before Sunday's Group 1 Longines Singapore Gold Cup (2200m).

While My Lucky Strike and Indian Jade spearhead Walker's weekend charge on Sunday, he actually saddles more leading fancies on Friday with the likes of Sebrose, Kam's Comet, The Cosmos and Q Nine Magic all expected to stake strong claims.