Walker Conquers Another Championship Peak

The Informant's Dennis Ryan reports:

While a trainers' premiership title is no novelty for Mark Walker, the satisfaction that has gone with his addition of a Singapore championship to the five he achieved in New Zealand cannot be under-estimated.

On the final two racedays of the season last weekend at Kranji, Walker saddled up four winners to seal his status as the leading trainer with 86 wins. Singaporean Alvin Tan was runner-up on 71 wins and Australian Michael Freedman third on 69.

Expat Laurie Laxon, the Melbourne Cup-winning trainer who has dominated Singapore training ranks and the first to prepare 1,000 winners at Kranji, this year finished fifth on 65 wins. Walker's previous best premiership placing was second with 73 wins in 2013, five behind Laxon when he claimed his ninth title.

On a season-ending raceday with a dominant Kiwi flavour, Walker saddled up two winners in the Te Akau colours, Lady Iffraaj ( who races for Fortuna), a daughter of former top filly Naturo, and Thorn Park gelding Clutha Lad. The seven New Zealand-bred winners on the 11-race card included the Laxon-trained Any Suggestion gelding Katagas and Savabeel gelding Classified for Bruce Marsh.

“Like anything in this business, the whole season has been a big team effort.”

“We had a good tail to our season and things fell into place, so in the end it was quite comfortable,” said Walker at his former domain of Matamata when catching up with friends and former colleagues at Wednesday's race meeting.

“Like anything in this business, the whole season has been a big team effort. Gus Clutterbuck has been a big factor since he joined us as stable foreman and we've got a very strong relationship with our two main jockeys, Manoel Nunes and Shafiq Rizuan.

“Manoel has taken over from Joao Moreira to completely dominate, so it's good to have him on side, and Shafiq has really matured from the time he was an apprentice with me here in Matamata. He's just come out of his time and he's got a great future.”

The other important element for Walker has been the overall Te Akau Racing structure, in which he is a business partner with founder David Ellis, and the merits of the horses racing in the Te Akau colours and syndication associate Fortuna.

“Establishing ourselves in Singapore has been the best thing we've done since David developed Te Akau,” Walker said. “New Zealand's a great place to breed and develop horses - and the best of them get obvious opportunities here and in Australia - but there's an obvious weakness with our overall stakes levels and for Te Akau to keep going we had to look at our options.

“I suggested to David that Singapore, where everyone can race for fantastic stakes, could be the solution. It took a long time for me to settle in there, it's so different to New Zealand with its wide open spaces and green paddocks, and even when I finished second to Laurie two years ago I wasn't sure if I could stick it out.

“But I've finally adapted and it's worked out very well For me personally it's been a highlight of my career to get to this stage.”

Ellis still pinches himself at the thought of his first racing venture in the late 1970s and how his model has developed to be the dominant stable to base itself on syndication of specifically selected horses.

“When I got my first horse 36 years ago I never dreamt Te Akau would become such a big and successful organisation,” Ellis said. “It's very satisfying to be the guy who buys the horses and brings so much pleasure to a whole lot of people.

“Mark of course has been part of this for a long time and I'm so proud to see what he has achieved with my backing.”

Ellis and Walker both now have an eye on their New Zealand operation, where, less than a year after joining forces, Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards are leading the domestic premiership.

“That's a big effort, especially to have such good young horses as Xtravagant in the stable,” added Walker. “I'm looking forward to seeing him race when he gets going again at Christmas.”