Te Akau Singapore's Fantastic Season

In her first season as trainer for Te Akau Racing in Singapore, Donna Logan finished second on the Trainer's Premiership.

With a season running the calendar year, and now finished until recommencing on 7 January, Logan took over from Mark Walker in January and made a great fist to produce 59 winners, behind winner Tim Fitzsimmons who had 65.  Walker had returned to New Zealand to return to the helm of the Matamata operation.

Highlights for Logan included: training four winners during a meeting in August, to arrest the Premiership lead; having three wins at one race meeting on three occasions; and finished second in the $1 million Singapore Gold Cup (Gr. 1, 2000m) with Super Impact (Real Impact), ridden by visiting jockey Michael Dee. In 2021, Logan trained $1 million Kranji Mile (Gr. 1, 1600m) winner Minister (Street Sense).

Walker was Champion Trainer four times in Singapore, including setting a new Singapore training record with 87 wins in 2017, after completing his first stint as Te Akau trainer (1997 - 2010) at Matamata, where he recorded 858 wins, of which 88 were stakes' level, while winning the Trainers' Premiership five times.

Reinstated at the helm since April in Matamata, Walker has set a torrid pace with over 100 wins, including 18 stakes' wins, and has a clear hold on the Premiership title this season with 73 victories.

Te Akau principal David Ellis CNZM was recently in Singapore, and made his intentions clear of ongoing support, and when Logan was home for the recent New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale, the team buying nine horses of which three are earmarked for Te Akau's Kranji stable.

In October at the 2022 Gold Coast 2YOs In Training Sale, Ellis and Logan bought a colt by Smart Missile - Lycra Lass (Shamardal) for $100,000 from the draft of Kenmore Lodge.

By the brilliant racehorse Smart Missile, a leading freshman sire, now represented by over 1200 winners, his dam, Lycra Lass, won seven races from 1200m - 1600m in Australia, and left two individual winners of four races from 1100m - 2000m, while the first three dams won 20 races between them.

Gelded since being purchased, and with two shares still available, he is now on his way to Singapore.

Training since 2018 in Singapore, Logan was previously a highly regarded trainer at Ruakaka, where she prepared 873 winners including 61 stakes winners. Among her stars were quadruple Group One winner Volkstok'n'barrell (Tavistock), Habibi (Ekraar), Rising Romance (Ekraar), Valley Girl (Mastercraftsman), and Vapour Trail (Jetball).

Logan is buoyed by her first year with Te Akau, taking the time to reflect on the season, while also outlining increased incentives for owners, twice the number of feature races (stakes $110,000 - $1 million), and is already gearing up for 2023.

“It was a mammoth first season,” she said. “I think my best ever in New Zealand was 62 wins, with more meetings, so to get 59 here with an average of 48 horses in work was great.

“We also had 65 seconds and 66 thirds, with some very narrow margins, so we were a bit unlucky, really, not to get more wins.

“We are busy planning the races to start off again in January, while horses are having a holiday to freshen-up.  We've got new horses arriving in December and again in January, which is really encouraging.

“The staff worked hard and really applied themselves and we've got a great bunch of loyal owners that support us.

“Our apprentice, Fadzli Yusoff, won Champion Apprentice, and Jerlyn Seow, the only female jockey in Singapore, finished third.

“Fortuna Racing, run by John Galvin, finished third in the owners' list with 18 wins and we had a great time hosting them when they came over.

“Trainers and owners, and everyone involved in racing here, have really grown in confidence with what Dayle Brown (Chief Racing Officer of the Singapore Turf Club) has put in place. He's very on to racing and had a lot of experience and knowledge. It's a big advantage.

“His working with our President and Chief Executive, Irene Lim, has really improved everything here at the turf club. And she's staying on for another three-year term.

“Although not out in the press, there is going to be an increase to the owner's incentive of $600 each time the horse races, for horses finishing second to eighth.

“Also the owners have no transportation costs, no horse covers, and subsidised vets because they are employed by the turf club and veterinary products at virtually cost price.”

At the completion of the respective seasons (New Zealand and Singapore), Te Akau Racing won a combined over $8 million in prize money for its owners.