Matamata calling for returning Te Akau son Walker
“Racehorses are like vegetables. They’re perishable products, and whoever re-stocks their fridge every year is going to have a lot of success.”
It’s something Mark Walker – looking to reload his fridge on the Gold Coast this week – learnt in Singapore.
If it does not sound like eastern mysticism it’s because it came from his fellow New Zealander, the late, great Laurie Laxon, a friend and supporter in the five or so years the pair spent together in the city-state, where each became multiple premiership-winning trainers.
Walker, 49, cherished the time he had around Laxon in the close and different quarters of Singapore racing, their bond one of several avenues there which developed Walker as a trainer.
“Initially, there was a lot of rebuilding to be done, with staff and systems, and it was pretty hard to get going actually in those early days,” Walker tells ANZ Bloodstock News.
“So I was very hands-on, and I probably still am, but one of the other quotes from Laurie that stuck in my head was, ‘Slow down – the CEO of Singapore airlines doesn’t fly every plane himself!’”
If was in fact Laxon, then ensconced on the equator, and another New Zealand thoroughbred giant in Sir Peter Vela, who convinced a 38-year-old Walker to move to Singapore, having conquered racing in his homeland through five premierships.
Eleven years and four Singapore titles later – to follow Laxon’s nine – Walker is at the Magic Millions before moving home.
Or at least that was the plan. Just as Covid has kept him away from the sale for two years, it’s now also checking his return passage to Matamata to replace Hong Kong-bound Jamie Richards as Te Akau Racing’s head trainer.
So used to coming first, Walker now finds himself in the unusual position of 9,642nd. Without cover. And not suited by the pattern one little bit.
“The hardest thing in returning to New Zealand is getting the quarantine spot,” he said. “I applied the other day and they only had 3,000 spots, and unfortunately I was number 9,642 in the queue.
“I might have to hire a kayak and row back!”
He’ll return to Singapore after the Millions, which was always the plan. With compatriot Donna Logan having taken over his stable, including Te Akau’s Singapore runners, he had hoped to spend a couple of weeks packing before returning to New Zealand. Now, he’d be happy to make it home in the year’s first quarter – hopefully in time for Karaka in March. But recent events have shown him nothing is guaranteed.
“I flew into Sydney, had to spend three days in isolation, and then spent another 14 days hanging around before I could travel to Queensland,” he said. “So it’s been a drawn-out process to get here. Mind you, I know Covid hasn’t been much fun for anyone.”
The brightest light at the end of that tunnel for Walker has been that for the first time in two years he’s seen his children Xavier, 15, and Alexis, 12, who live on the Gold Coast.
“That’s been the main highlight,” he said. “With technology it’s easier to keep in contact now than, say, when people would send their kids to boarding school in the old days, but still it’s been great to see them again.”
Christmas presents duly exchanged, the other business at hand, of course, is that re-stocking.
With Te Akau’s David Ellis and Karyn Fenton-Ellis sourcing most of their yearlings at Karaka, they’ve honed just a brief shortlist for Walker to peruse and pursue. But he’s hoping to strike some more gold on the Coast. His four-time Group 1 winner Princess Coup (Encosta De Lago) was bought by Ellis at the National Yearling Sale in 2005, while Te Akau’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic entrant Bright Blue Sky (Fastnet Rock) was a $600,000 purchase last January.
“David and Karyn, even though they’re not here, we’ve had a good team talk and got our shortlist,” Walker said.
“Ideally, you’d love to buy horses like Princess Coup and Probabeel – a horse that can run at two but particularly those who train on to be better at three, four and even better at five. We don’t necessarily want horses that are early two-year-olds who don’t train on.
“It’s an exceptional catalogue. Probably the three most dominant stallions are Written Tycoon, I Am Invincible and Fastnet Rock. We’ve had luck with Fastnet Rock, with (nine-time Group 1-winning mare) Avantage a very good horse for the stable at home.
“But first and foremost we look for the athlete; look at the horse first, then look at the pedigree. It doesn’t matter what it’s by or what it’s out of – if it’s legs are on backwards it’s not going to run fast.”
Walker will – eventually – return to a Te Akau operation bigger and better than that he left to move to Singapore, with “a good group of core staff who are young and hungry to learn”.
He’s pleased to be returning to the same old place at Matamata – “so I don’t have to learn the tracks again” – but he will not be the same old trainer. Singapore has changed him, and his methods, with necessity the mother of invention.
Despite that saying about stable replenishment, the fact Singapore’s are capped at 60 horses restricts the intake somewhat. It’s a move to keep the trainers’ premierships competitive – validated by five different winners in the past seven years. And one offshoot is Walker believes he’s grown more adept at keeping horses racing for longer.
“It’s not like you’ve got 40 yearlings coming in every year. You’ve got your horses people have paid money for and they go up and down the grades,” he said.
“The key to success in Asia is knowing the racing system and keeping your horses very sound and very happy to keep performing. In New Zealand and Australia, once they’ve reached their level they’ll often be sold to make way for another one. Asia’s not like that, so you learn how to keep horses going for longer.”
Despite its culinary reputation, there’s one form of spice that’s hard to come by in Asia – variety – especially in life as a racehorse.
Australia and New Zealand have more options to change things up, like beaches or a multitude of spelling farms. And with the world’s easiest job being that of a Singapore weatherman – “stinking hot and humid and 32” – there’s not even a perceptible change of season there to liven things up.
Thus Walker has become not just a better delegator, as per Laxon’s advice, but more creative.
“A sound and happy horse will give you its best, whereas if they’re not sound or not happy, at the 200 metres when it starts to hurt a bit, they’ll go backwards pretty quickly,” he said.
“Every time they come out of their box, you’re trying to keep them guessing what they’re doing that day. Your options in Singapore are a bit limited, like swimming and treadmills, but at least there’s an uphill track, and probably five different training tracks, whereas Hong Kong is more limited because of the size of the land.
“I think I’ve probably got the ability to keep horses up in a campaign for longer and keep them happier for a longer campaign. You never stop learning. As soon as you’re not open to new ideas it’s probably time to hang it up.”
Walker will have some less-than-enticing aspects to re-acquaint himself with in New Zealand: a far higher tax rate than Singapore’s dreamy 16 per cent, and working hours that do not compare too well with the city-state’s trackwork times of 6 to 10am.
“I asked someone this week what time the Gold Coast track opens, and they said 3.45am,” he said like a man hit by an unpleasant memory. “You can see why a lot of people are short-staffed. Young people just don’t want to do that any more.
“There are signs of change – such as the welfare of horses after racing, which is very positive – but in other areas, the industry’s still struggling to come to grips with what modern-day society expects. The sooner we can get in line with that a bit more the better we’ll be.”