Fortuna Syndications on a roll in Singapore
When King Arthur (I Am Invincible) surged to the lead in the Open Maiden 1200 event at Singapore‘s Kranji racecourse 2nd October, going to the line a length clear and breaking Maidens at his seventh race day start, he capped off a perfect four week pattern for the Fortuna Stable in Singapore with a winner every week for the past four weeks and bringing up 16 wins altogether for the calendar year of 2021.
With Fortuna‘s Singapore trainer, Mark Walker, collecting two winners on the day, it was a solid outcome as well for the Singapore conditioner, giving him 57 wins for the season and pushing him seven clear of Michael Clements in second place. With just eight race meetings to go to the end of the season, Mark would be at very short odds to collect his 4th Singapore training Premiership to add to the five he achieved when training in New Zealand.
KING ARTHUR winning at Kranji in the hands of Shafiq Rusof
The Fortuna/Mark Walker/Singapore axis goes back a long time – Fortuna Director John Galvin picks up the story “Fortuna first started syndicating in 2007 – this after a successful stint for me as a private owner with Te Akau Racing and Mark Walker training the very first horse selected for me by David Ellis back in 2003, that being the Group Two winning filly, Kapsdan – subsequently we had a great associations through my shareholding in Darci Brahma.
“When David Ellis and Mark decided to set up a stable in Singapore in 2010, Fortuna became a significant initial supporter, recognising that the prize money levels up there were exceptional and would add another string to our bow. We had immediate success with our Singapore venture with our very first horse, the New Zealand Stakes winner, Rio Fortune, winning his first race there and giving Mark his first winner in Singapore – subsequently our very good New Zealand horse, the 2000 Guineas winner Tell A Tale, went to race in Singapore and managed to run second in the Singapore Gold Cup
“The big attraction for us racing horses in Singapore is the very good prizemoney at grade level with Restricted Maiden Grade paying S$75,000, Class 5 S$30,000, Class 4 S$50,000 and Class 3 S$70,000 – these are exceptional prize money levels for bread-and butter horses – horses also race up there a lot more often because of the evenness of the Singapore climate all year round.
“I calculate we have had close to 80 wins from 23 individual winners over the years in Singapore and 2021 is shaping up as our best ever year with 16 wins to date from 9 individual winners, including Entertainer (5 wins) and Hadeer (3 wins) being our current stable stars. We suffered a significant loss recently when the six time winner Federation had to be put down after suffering a race day injury”
ENTERTAINER scoring his 5th Singapore win in 2021 – K Hakim aboard
Te Akau Racing’s Singapore trainer acknowledges the contribution that Fortuna has made to his Singapore operation, “John Galvin and his various ownership groups have been great supporters of our stable here in Singapore right from the start. John is the perfect owner to train for – he understands the issues around training horses very well and just lets me get on with the job with no pressure. John also has a good grasp of the right type of horse to buy for Singapore racing. Fortuna is having a great year in 2021 – they are in 2nd place on the ownership table and deserve every success they get”
Te Akau Racing’s Singapore Trainer Mark Walker
Te Akau Racing currently train 29 horses for Fortuna Syndications – 14 in NZ by Jamie Richards and 15 in Singapore by Mark Walker