Singapore Success

Te Akau Singapore trainer Mark Walker celebrated another winning training performance on Friday night with Zac Heaven the dead heat winner of the S$35,000 Kranji Stakes D SW over 1200m.

Straight to the front in the hands to gun rider Manny Nunes, the Danbird gelding was only pounced on right on the line in such a close finish that the judge could not split them.  With only five weeks of the new season underway, this was Mark's sixth training success for the new 2014 year (which runs in Singapore to a calendar year).

Zac Heaven has now won six races for the Zac Stable which is a strong supporter of Te Akau Singapore.  He has also placed 2nd, 3rd or 4th on 27 occasions, with stake earnings of $253,130.

In other good news - a former powerhouse of racing ownership is awakening in Singapore as the Singapore Turf Club reports - and Mark Walker has been selected as one of its preferred trainers ...

The revival of the once all-conquering Lucky Stable seems to be gathering more steam as three newcomers carrying the famous purple and red star silks hit the ground running this Sunday with two trained by Te Akau Singapore's Mark Walker.

Mark saddles Smileswithhiseyes and Claim to their debut in the last race, a Class 4 race over 1400m, the Lucky pair being incidentally all tried Irish-bred four-year-olds.

Though Walker has already sent out Prince Mag for three unplaced starts for the Lucky Stable, he feels privileged to be teaming up with the former three-time champion owner (1997, 2000 and 2001) for the first time.

“I've never met Mr Robert Ng (owner of Lucky Stable), but it's great to be given the chance to train a few horses for them,” said Walker.

“Prince Mag came from France and was supposed to go to Hong Kong, but ended up here. He hasn't quite fired yet. Hopefully the two new horses will show better things this weekend, but it's really more of a first test to see where they are at.  They both arrived at the same time and took a while to acclimatise.

"It's worked out in such a way they have both become ready at the same time and will have their first run in the same race.  I gave them a quiet trial last year but had to put them out for a month. They had woolly coats and I felt they were not ready.”

Walker is at this stage not getting ahead of himself, preferring to use Sunday's race as a yardstick before mapping out any future plans.

On their track record in England, Smileswithhiseyes (60 points), a son of Marju, just seems a touch classier than his stablemate. His two wins from five runs for Newmarket trainer Gay Kelleway were interestingly both scored over 1400m at Kempton on a surface he will meet again here, Polytrack. From five starts as well, Claim (56 points), who was prepared by Sir Michael Stoute, boasts a record of one win in a Maiden race (1500m) at Beverley in 2012.

Walker is using two claiming apprentices for the two rides but said they were more through a lack of senior riders than for the weight relief. His in-form apprentice Shafiq Rizuan takes the ride on Smileswithhiseyes while Tengku Rehaizat is booked aboard Claim.

“They're both staying horses, and though 1400m may be a touch short, I think it's an ideal trip first-up from a long break,” said the five-time New Zealand champion trainer.

“There were no senior jockeys available as they were already committed to other rides in the race. I got Shafiq and Tengku to ride them, which is fine as they both rode them in the same barrier trial last week (Smileswithhiseyes ran third and Claim ran fourth).

“It's hard to split them as I don't really know them, but I would say they're both on par. It will also depend on how they handle the firm track.  They are used to softer tracks in Europe and this is a bit of an unknown quantity on Sunday. I don't have any big ambitions for them yet, we'll just see how they go first.”

Going by their rekindled interest in racing, the Lucky Stable would certainly not mind reliving the heyday when the racing mogul cut a swathe through Singapore feature races with the likes of Lucky Treasure, Three Crowns, Peak Of Perfection X and XI, or more recently, Exaggerate.

The former leviathan owner of the mid-nineties has kept a low profile on the Singapore racing scene in the last 10 years, especially after the passing of its supremo, property tycoon Ng Teng Fong in 2010.

At that point, two Class 5 dwellers were the only remaining horses carrying the Ng's legacy - one of their longest-serving stalwarts, Lucky Sun, whom trainer David Kok just retired at the age of 11 last August as a winner of 13 races and more than half-a-million dollars, and Japanese-bred mare Lucky Moon.  But Mr Ng's son Robert has been represented more regularly (though they were still present in Hong Kong and Australia) through his racing manager Richard See at Kranji in the last couple of years, a sure telltale sign the sleeping giant was about to wake up.