Smiling Indeed

The Singapore Turf Club reports on another of Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker's Friday wins:

Trainer Mark Walker was delighted he was able to finally saddle a winner for the Lucky Stable when Irish import Smileswithhiseyes scored a hard-fought win in the $55,000 Class 4 race over 1700m on Friday night.

The New Zealander has just recently been entrusted with the care of Prince Mag first, then followed by two Irish-bred four-year-olds Smileswithhiseyes and Claim, who made their Kranji debut in the same race in February.

While Prince Mag and Claim had been only fair in their outings, Smileswithhiseyes was clearly the one with the most upsides, and the Marju entire confirmed his last-start closing third to give the Walker-Lucky Stable team their first hurrah.

Ridden by Manoel Nunes for the first time Smileswithhiseyes, who was punted down to even-money favouritism, settled worse than midfield as Ginseng (Lisa Allpress) dictated terms at a good clip upfront.

Turning for home, Walker's ward was caught behind a wall of horses, a sticky situation which he could only extricate himself out of with a bit of ducking and weaving.

But when a gap opened up at the 300m, Nunes needed no second invitation and launched the Irish-bred who easily took care of Ginseng, but had to contend with a very gutsy Twist Oliver (Barend Vorster) while Golden Lark (Zuriman Zulkifli) was finishing with a wet sail on the outside.

The issue looked like it could go either way for a few strides but Irish eyes really smiled in the end when Smileswithhiseyes fell in by a neck from Twist Oliver, who beat Golden Lark for second by an identical margin. The winning time was 1min48.93secs.

“I'm very happy to have trained my first winner for the Lucky Stable. I take this opportunity to thank Mr Robert Ng for his support,” said Walker.

“This horse has taken a while to acclimatise, but he has improved a lot since his first run and I hope he will go on with it.  I'll definitely step him up in distance at his next races and take it from there. I'll have to see how he comes through his run first before making any decision as to his future races.”

Nunes said that although the win looked laboured, there was probably more scope for him over more ground.

“He drew a good barrier tonight and the blinkers on for the first time must have helped as well. Everything went to plan and when the gap opened at the 600m, he took it and though he had to battle a little to get there, he got the job done,” said the Brazilian jockey.

“He was not 100% acclimatised and for him to win at his fourth start here is great. He's also looking for a longer distance.   The more runs he gets the better he will get.”

Smileswithhiseyes was Mark Walker's first of three Friday winners at Kranji.