SINGAPORE,  Jun 17, 2010

New Zealand trainer Mark Walker will join the trainer’s ranks in Singapore later this year.

A professional trainer in New Zealand for 12 years, Walker was granted a professional trainer’s licence by the Malayan Racing Association on Jun 11.

The 38-year-old comes to Singapore with outstanding credentials, having notably won the New Zealand trainer’s premiership four times in the past six years, and given his clear lead in the current season, he is well on his way to claiming his fifth title.

Training mainly for the Te Akau Racing Stables from his Matamata base, Walker recently rewrote the history books in New Zealand when he broke a 17-year-old record held by Dave and Paul O’Sullivan for winners (104) in a season when he saddled a double on Jun 5 to bring up his season tally to 105 winners.

Walker has trained over 800 individual winners, of which more than 90 are stakes winners. He has also won 20 Group 1 races, including one in Australia, the TJ Smith Handicap with DARCI BRAHMA in 2005.

Among his most notable Group 1 wins in New Zealand are three Kelt Capital Stakes, including back-to-back wins in 2007 and 2008 with champion mare PRINCESS COUP, New Zealand’s highest stakes earner (NZ$4.23 million).

In Australia, other than the TJ Smith, Walker has been successful on four other occasions, all in Group or Listed races, namely the Group 2 St George Stakes (2008) with PRINCESS COUP and the Group 2 QTC Grand Prix Stakes (2002) with DISTINCTLY SECRET.

Other important benchmarks that Walker has set in his homeland include becoming the youngest New Zealand trainer (at 31) to win the premiership in the 2003-2004 season, and establishing a new New Zealand record for most domestic stakes earnings in one season — NZ$3.71 million in 2008-2009.

Walker has indicated that he will be looking to start setting up operations in Singapore around September.