Smart Friday winner Mighty Conqueror is having another bite at the cherry this weekend.

Trainer Mark Walker has put the Patapan five-year-old on the quick back-up following his comfortable win in a Class 3 race over 1000m last Friday. He is entered in this Friday’s $80,000 Kranji Stakes C race over 1100m.

The New Zealand handler explained that he had not planned to run him at such short interval, but with entries being on the low side, he was asked to help pad them up if he could.



Mighty Conqueror (Zawari Razali) ran his rivals off their feet last Friday, picture Singapore Turf Club

“The Club was desperate for extra entries and I nominated five extra, namely Mighty Conqueror,” said the current runaway leading trainer.

“I thought about his last win the other night and he had a fairly soft run. Besides, he did not have a trial leading up to that run after a break.

“So, he had not been overtaxed. There were no suitable races for him, there was this Benchmark 97 1100m race on Polytrack, but I thought it was a step too far.

“I decided to put him on the quick back-up and just kept him fresh for this race.”

Walker admitted that the opposition was meatier this time, but he hoped Mighty Conqueror can still rise to the occasion.

“He’s meeting a stronger field on Friday. Zawari (Razali) will ride him and he is riding in great form,” he said.

“The horse has really matured mentally and is physically stronger. He used to be better off going around horses, but he can take runs through them now.”

With a big lead of 18 winners on reigning champion trainer Alwin Tan, Walker is in a commanding position to claim a second title after the first one earned in 2015, but the cautious man in him would rather focus on just adding more winners to his tally, week by week.

“Two or three win every week, they add up, don’t they? The horses are running well,” said Walker.

“But it’s cyclical. Next year, they will reach their mark and I expect to go through a quiet time then.

“It’s all a numbers game, you need to have enough good horses going around and have enough new ones coming through as well.”

The five-time New Zealand champion trainer is not only planning next year’s campaign in terms of new blood in his string of horses, but also in his riding ranks. Currently, Zawari, Ng Choon Kiat and Syed Zainal are his two apprentice jockey, but a fourth one is waiting in the wings, Hanafi Noorman.

“I am hoping to get Hanafi’s apprentice licence by next year,” said Walker.

“Hanafi has good skills and I think he will do well. He is also very light, which is always very handy.”

The Singaporean rookie was aboard three of Walker’s horses at the barrier trials on Tuesday, including Asprey who recently had the misfortune of losing an eye.

“Asprey hurt his eye after his last race (May 14). I think he was hit by the mesh on the turf track,” he said.

“He came back with a bad injury to his eye, and unfortunately we could not save it. He’s got only one eye now, but he seems to be coping with it well.

“He will run in a 1200m race in two weeks’ time. Hopefully he goes all right as he does have ability.

“He had a nice trial today, a nice day out.”