Winning Treble for Mark Walker - Win 60

While Te Akau New Zealand's team was celebrating the annual Horse of the Year success on Sunday night - Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker was having plenty of his own at Kranji, bringing up win 60 for the season, courtesy of a winning treble.

Walker continues his dominance of the Singapore Trainers' Premiership - now with 60 wins, he has a lead of 15 wins.

The wins came with Inherit, Altair and Yulong Edition - the Singapore Turf Club reports on Inherit and then Altair ...

Champion trainer Mark Walker's recent drive to tap into the Sydney market in search of lightly-raced castoffs gained further traction when a former Chris Waller named Inherit scored on debut on Sunday.

Walker has been on a shopping spree buying former expensive yearlings who were put back in the Sydney market at a depreciated value after results fell below expectations, such as ex-Godolphin Beau Geste and Barbeque as well as Augustus and Barbarian - all winners except for the latter.

Inherit (main picture) is another fine example of Walker's knack at sniffing up a good bargain. An A$180,000 purchase as a yearling, the son of Pierro made only about a fifth of that price tag in eight starts, with his only win recorded on a debut in a 1200m race at Newscastle in July 2018.

Waller then sent him to the big smoke at Rosehill and Warwick Farm, with underwhelming results that told the Sydney champion trainer he was probably just a midweeker.

Inherit raced another five times on the provincial circuit, without success, before he fell on Walker's radar screen as an interesting resale proposition.

The two-time Singapore champion trainer didn't expect a winning debut from Inherit in Sunday's $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race, especially as he thought the six furlongs would be on the sharp side, but Inherit came off a soft run behind the leaders to round up his nine rivals rather easily.

Ridden by Azhar Ismail, Inherit collared leader Super Win (Matthew Kellady) at the 200m before clearing out for a 1 ½-length win, clearly not fully extended. Super Win did a good job to hold on for second place considering he had to endure pressure from the outside for most of the way.

Magnum Force (Daniel Moor) did come into contention at the top of the straight, but the last-start winner could not quite finish it off to settle for third place, beaten a nose by Super Win. The winning time was 1min 12.15secs for the 1200m on the Polytrack.

“He's a nice horse who won once over 1200m in Australia and was placed once over 1900m (at Canterbury),” said Walker.

“I think he's better than Class 4 and he will get much better over more distance. He probably needed every bit of the 1200m today, he was outgrounded.

“It's become very hard to buy yearlings these days, and this proves we can still buy horses at the right price while they still have some upside about them. He was well ridden by Azhar as well. He gave him every chance.”

The veteran Malaysian rider was content with taking a drop in midfield while keeping an eye on the speed battle being wagered between Super Win, Magnum Force, King Zoustar (Louis-Philippe Beuzelin) and Awesome (Yusoff Fadzli) upfront.

Into the home straight, the quartet were still locking horns, but it all counted for nothing when Inherit came as the fresh legs on the scene to score a most impressive win.

Five races after trainer Mark Walker saddled a debut winner from his batch of ex-Sydneysiders, another such specimen named Altair followed suit on Sunday.

By coincidence, both Inherit (see earlier report) in the $50,000 Class 4 Division 1 race over 1200m and Altair in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1100m were prepared by Sydney premier trainer Chris Waller before being acquired by Walker as part of a switch in bloodstock markets towards former expensive yearlings who did not quite deliver at Randwick or Rosehill Gardens.

Kranji certainly proved to be a much more conducive backyard for the two former Wallers. 

While Inherit scored a soft win after enjoying a smothered ground-saving run in behind the speed, Altair must have rattled the confidence of those punters who sent him out the even-money favourite after coursing out the widest of the 12 runners.

Caught three wide in no man's land after breaking from the outermost alley, the Zoustar four-year-old was never in with a chance to tuck in for some cover, but upon straightening, there was only one horse running away from the rest - Altair.

In-form jockey Benny Woodworth gave the former (Sheikh Fahad's) Qatar Racing-owned galloper a few reminders inside the last furlong, but it was more to go through the motions. The race was already all stitched up by then.

Last-start winner Lincoln Moonlight (John Powell) claimed the battle for the minors two and three-quarter lengths away with Yulong Fast Speed (Syahir Abdul) third another short head away. The winning time was 1min 5.31secs for the 1100m on the Polytrack.

Walker said he was not too concerned when he saw Altair punching the breeze throughout the race as it was a scenario he and Woodworth had been well-prepared for. The New Zealander said the horse was not without qualities, but he was for that first day at the office greatly aided by a sterling ride from a man who can't do no wrong these days.

“We thought we'd end up three wide but Benny always had him in a nice rhythm,” said Walker.

“Benny can win on a broomstick these days. He's so full of confidence, he knows his horses. He deserves the rewards as he is at the track every day and he works really hard.”

The Malaysian jockey has forged a strong association with the two-time Singapore champion trainer this year, the trigger being arguably their Dester Singapore Gold Cup win with Elite Invincible last November.

Altair may not be in the same league yet, but Woodworth hinted there could be more in the locker from the His Jar-Yi-owned gelding, judging from the ease of that debut win despite covering more ground than the others.

“He's a very nice horse. He was trapped wide, he hit the front a little too soon and wandered a little, but he was still strong to the line,” said Woodworth who was at his 45^th winner to consolidate his third place on the Singapore jockeys' premiership.

While Woodworth made it a hat-trick of wins at Kranji on Friday, it was Walker's turn to claim the training honours with a third victor in the penultimate race courtesy of Yulong Edition (Syahir Abdul, $14) in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1600m. 

Having hit win No 60, Walker is well clear in this year's Singapore trainer's premiership and should barring incident claim a third title after the ones won in 2015 and 2017. Michael Clements trails by 15 winners in second place.

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