Te Akau Singapore Winning Trio Adds to NZ's Winning Quartet

Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker continued the winning theme for Te Akau on Saturday, adding three further wins to our New Zealand's Saturday scorecard of four (three New Zealand and one Australia).

First out of the Kranji starting stalls was Brutus, followed by I Am Sacred and then Hidden Promise. The Singapore Turf Club reported on both Brutus and I Am Sacred (as below).

Mark Walker shares the lead the Singapore Trainers' Premiership in a season sadly disrupted by COVID-19 but leads on a countdown back to second and third placings.

BRUTUS GETS WELL DESERVED WIN

Never out of the placings at his previous seven starts, Brutus finally broke through for a well-deserved first win on Saturday.

Lined up in the $75,000 Novice race over 1200m on the Polytrack, the honest four-year-old son of Rubick was again thereabouts when the whips were cracking inside the concluding stages, but he was able to hold sway this time.

It nearly all came unstuck again, though. As Brutus hit the front, he was seen begging for the line as favourite Tuesday (Juan Paul van der Merwe) came charging home on his outside, but the winning post came to his rescue by a nose.

After staging a speed battle with the other well-fancied Infinite Wisdom (Simon Kok Wei Hoong) from the outset, Gold Prize (Ryan Munger) got weary late, but still plugged away for third place another 2 ¾ lengths away, beating Infinite Wisdom to a podium finish by three parts of a length. Specked into $19, Brutus clocked 1min 11.73secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.

Thanks to his consistency in chalking up minor prizemoney right through his budding career, Brutus has earned a tidy sum of $110,000 for the Fortuna NZ Racing Stable, a laudable feat that did not escape trainer Mark Walker's attention.

“Brutus' win is a great example of the good prizemoney in Singapore. Even though he has never won before, he still made $110,000,” said the Kiwi handler.

“It's great for John Galvin (of Fortuna Racing) who works so hard to bring new people into racing. As for the race itself, I left it to Ruan to ride his own race. I think it also helped him that Brutus has more race experience than a few of those, like the second horse (Tuesday) who won well on debut.”

Galvin was a happy man post-race.

“That was a fantastic result - Brutus has never run a bad race, but always seemed to have run into one that was better than him on the day,” said the Fortuna director.

“However, today he contested a Novice as a Maiden and pulled off a great victory for his very patient ownership team.

“Congratulations to Mark Walker for handling this horse so well and big kudos to Ruan Maia who put his hand up for the ride earlier in the week and then rode the horse perfectly.”

After Michael Clements levelled up and even passed Walker at the top of the ladder with his training treble (see earlier report), Brutus' win has once again brought the two trainers tied at the top.

Such is the ding-dong battle between the two trainers that Walker just led on a better countback for thirds! They both have the same amount of seconds (42) with Walker, however, having a lot more thirds than Clements (42 versus 28).

I AM SACRED BOUNCES BACK

After I Am Sacred ran a shocker at his second run, trainer Mark Walker went back to the drawing board, chopped and changed a few things, and a new winning formula has been whipped up.

The I Am Invincible four-year-old was right on target at his first start on August 2 when he led all the way for Juan Paul van der Merwe.

Two weeks later, he was presented in another 1200m event but at Novice level, with the booking of three-kilo claimer Mohammad Nizar to alleviate the 58kgs impost. The same frontrunning blueprint was followed, but I Am Sacred emptied out at the 300m to run seventh.

A freshen-up ensued, coupled with a tactical switch sprinkled with a tweaking of gear, and Walker again showed why he was crowned champion three times.

Partnered by in-form jockey Ruan Maia, I Am Sacred jumped well but took a drop this time, happy to watch proceedings from his backseat, right in the running line behind Tom Cat (Simon Kok Wei Hoong) and Sky Eye (Juan Paul van der Merwe).

Once the field straightened up, I Am Scared steadily worked his way to the top three wide before drawing clear to a 1 ¼-length victory from The Brotherhood (Benny Woodworth). Sky Eye did well to hold third place down another half-length away considering the wide trip without cover he endured.

Punted down to even-money favouritism, I Am Sacred recorded 1min 3.95secs for the 1100m on Polytrack, and has already picked up around $70,000 in stakes earnings from his two wins for the Remarkable Stable.

Walker pulled no punches when explaining the blemish between I Am Sacred's two wins.

“At his last start, he got an ordinary ride. He went too hard in front,” said the Kiwi handler.

“I gave him a freshen-up and brought him back to 1100m. Today, he relaxed nicely with the tongue tie on for the first time. It was all speed on paper in this race, and we wanted to teach him to settle behind runners. Ruan has very good hands and settled him beautifully.”

The Walker-Maia duo did not settle for the double (they won earlier with Brutus - see earlier report) as they immediately returned to the winner's circle in the very next race, the $30,000 Class 5 Division 2 race over 1800m, with 5-1 shot Hidden Promise.

The Brazilian jockey's treble has brought his score up to eight winners in the last two weekends (and 40 overall) during which log leader Vlad Duric was suspended, halving the massive lead (16 winners) the latter held on him after his last meeting on September 5.

Duric, who sits on top on 48 winners, returns at the Singapore Guineas meeting on Saturday.

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