Te Akau Racing Stables, New Zealand's Champion racing establishment has been granted approval by the Singapore Turf Club in Singapore and will be headed up by Mark Walker. Te Akau's current stable foreman, Jason Bridgeman, has been appointed the licensed trainer of the Te Akau operation based in New Zealand at Matamata and Rangiora.

Te Akau Racing Stables Principal, David Ellis, made the announcement recently, explaining that Te Akau had been planning to "go international" over the past two years and had considered a number of options, including Melbourne before plumping for the Singapore options.

A key factor in the decision is the rapidly rising Stakes Money in Singapore, this against a backdrop of declining Stakes Money here in NZ.

Fundamentally, nothing will change with the NZ operation. David Ellis will continue to select high quality yearlings for Te Akau Stable clients and for Fortuna Syndicates, those horses will continue to race in NZ as young 2yo's and 3yo's and some will then continue their ongoing careers in Singapore.

" This adds a huge string to the Fortuna bow when it comes to considering options for a nice horse," says Fortuna Director, John Galvin. " Up until now, our only option, apart from continuing to race a nice horse, was to sell it overseas into markets like Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. Now we have the option of continuing to race our horses in another jurisdiction ( Singapore) where the prizemoney is just sensational, while retaining the horses under the Te Akau Racing Stables banner. This is a "win-win" situation for all concerned."