3 minute read
Amid the widespread perception “everybody is bailing out of a sinking ship”, Kranj-based New Zealand trainers Mark Walker and Donna Logan are bucking the trend, having both come forward in foreign media to pledge allegiance to Singapore racing.
Walker spoke to ANZ Bloodstock News while Logan gave a recorded interview to Radio TAB, both initiated by the two medias in search of a response to the recent bombshell news that Cliff Brown would end his 13-year stint in Singapore in March, following into the footsteps of Lee Freedman who announced one month earlier he would also return to Australia to open a stable at the Gold Coast.
The two high-profile exits are the latest in a brain drain triggered to a large extent by the substantial changes (fewer races being the main conviction) brought by the Singapore Turf Club to the racing landscape in the wake of COVID-19.
Australian jockeys Michael Rodd, Daniel Moor, Patrick Moloney and Kiwi jockey Alysha Collett were the first to up stumps last April, followed suit by South African jockey Ryan Munger in December.
While former Chief Stipendiary Steward Terry Bailey relocating to Hong Kong at the end of last year and current jockey premiership leader Ruan Maia's sudden announcement on Thursday he was also leaving for the racing mecca are, on paper, more in the "grass is greener" category, it has not helped quell the rumours all the expat racing professionals are jumping on the bandwagon.
Walker's and Logan's "stand-up for Singapore" reaffirmations have, however, brought a breath of fresh air to the negativity that has been permeating through the recent collective mood, fuelling a renewed conviction the end is far from nigh.
In broad lines, Walker denied all the rumours he had also been planning to throw in the towel any time soon, instead saying he would ride out the COVID-19-induced storm.
"Racing has a proud history in Singapore and the government does so many things so well," said Walker, who pointed out that the neighbouring Malaysian races had again been closed for two months as the country's government grappled with a second wave of the coronavirus.
"I believe it is the best-run government in the world, so once they get COVID-19 under control, I am pretty sure they will look at racing and put the right structures in place and hopefully get prizemoney back to the levels they were when I first arrived here and it will get going again.
"I come from New Zealand and they're still racing for $10,000 maidens, so I know how good the prizemoney is compared to a lot of racing jurisdictions around the world, but COVID-19 has had a big impact on many industries.
"I've just been sick and tired of people saying I'm leaving, I'm definitely not leaving. We just have to tough it out and see where we end up."
While this year, Walker won't be able to attend the just-begun New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale, Te Akau's David Ellis will no doubt help him select a few purchases for Singapore.
Regardless, that has always been the modus operandi of the successful partnership, with Walker happy to run the show from Kranji.
The 48-year-old, whose two elder children Xavier and Alexis live in Australia and youngest, baby girl Skyler is with him in Singapore, certainly has no immediate ambitions to return to a country where he claimed the trainers' premiership five times in seven years before embarking on his new Asian challenge a decade ago.
"As I say, a good friend of mine, (trainer) Paul O'Sullivan, said to me when I won my first trainers' premiership in New Zealand, 'Now, start thinking about making a cheque book instead of a scrapbook'," said the three-time Singapore champion trainer who finished runner-up to Michael Clements last year, and who, on three winners, currently sits in third place to the same trainer (five).
"I was lucky enough to win five premierships at home and I have been lucky enough to win three in Singapore. Financially, Singapore has been very, very good to me, so I have no plans to leave in the short-term anyway."
Logan was also going along the same lines in her radio interview that was aired on Thursday – even with today's struggles, Kranji is still a better business model than New Zealand.
"I am a fighter. I have come here to have a crack and I will stay until I do crack. I won't give up and I intend to stay for as long as I can financially sustain it," said Logan, who saddled her first 2021 winner with longshot Pasir Pinji on Saturday.
"Singapore is a great place to live and the stakes money here is still far superior to what I have at home.
"Australia is a bit different - Australia is flying and it has good stakes money - but it is very difficult to win races over there unless you have a client base to set up for my way of thinking and I am getting a bit long in the tooth to start all over again.
"I made a big decision to move here and I am going to stick with it."
Walker is keeping a positive outlook about the Singapore racing industry's future, with no intention of scaling down on his usual capacity 60-horse stable at Kranji – so long as any improvement in the pandemic situation translates to a relaxation of those crippling restrictions at the races as well.
"The government's handled COVID-19 extremely well, so hopefully once the vaccine is rolled out and we can get crowds back to the races, turnover goes up, and the number of race meetings will increase," he said.
"The way I look at it, there's a lot more people doing it a lot tougher than we are around the world and we have just got to suck it up and get on with it, and then see how we come out of it on the other side of it."
