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Te Akau trainer Mark Walker leads the premiership in Singapore, and following two seconds earlier in the programme he ended the meeting with a trifecta in the $50,000 Class 4 1200 metres on Friday night at Kranji.
Although pretty much a rarity for him to present three horses in a race, it was only three weeks earlier that Walker achieved the same feat when Federation (x Written Tycoon) beat Atlantic Fox (x Savabeel) and Prince Pegasus (x Beneteau).
The race was won by Bejewelled (4 g Minstrel Court – Diamond Jules, by Kashani), a horse syndicated by Karyn Fenton-Ellis (MNZM) after being bought privately.
Ridden by Juan Paul van der Merwe, he overhauled Sacred Don (x Fastnet Rock) on the line, with Hidden Promise (x Postponed) closing rapidly for third. The latter pair is owned by Raffles Racing and Fortuna Syndications, respectively.
Owned by a Te Akau syndicate, Bejewelled was a winner two starts ago over 1200 metres on the Polytrack and now won $64,000 in prizemoney from two wins and three places from 11 starts.
"Bejewelled has been a big immature horse but he's just starting to get strong enough now to put it together," said Walker. "He's had two wins this preparation, both on the Poly, and he's becoming more competitive.
"It was a good win, because he was caught three wide without cover and he dug really deep to reel in Sacred Don.
"Sacred Don has been racing in great heart. Dato Yap (Kim San) thought they might send him to race in Malaysia, but he's probably racing well enough to stay here for awhile.
"And Hidden Promise has been a really good horse for John Galvin and Fortuna. He's as sound as the day we got him and always wins a couple every season.
"He's a good bread and butter horse that gives the owners a thrill of racing consistently and he's won five times."
Walker ended the 2018 season in fourth place on the premiership table, the leading Kiwi trainer, and at present has a 14-win buffer on his rivals with 45 wins for the year.
The winner of five training premierships in New Zealand, Walker has twice been crowned champion trainer in Singapore (2015, 2017), while also finishing second and third since setting up stables in 2010 at Kranji Racecourse.
"The team are racing very consistently and even the bread and butter horses are racing very well," said Walker, on the current standing.
"We had one weekend with nine winners and we've been able to keep a regular amount of winners going. We've got a good variety on horses, at all levels.
"Even last night, Beau Geste was a certainty beat and O'Reilly Star was only beaten a nose and it could have been different from a slightly better barrier. The horses are happy and racing in good heart.
"We're looking forward to racing here tomorrow (Sunday). Sacred Croix will be a favourite in the Group 2 Stewards' Cup, so hopefully we can have some luck there."
