A world-class horse trainer in any language, Mark Walker has been Champion Trainer 10 times (six in New Zealand, and four in Singapore).
From a farming and equestrian background, Walker joined Te Akau Racing soon after leaving school and became New Zealand’s youngest Trainers’ Premiership winner in 2003/04 aged 31.
Following 10 years training for Te Akau in Singapore, recording 685 wins including nine stakes wins (2 x Group One), Walker took up the reins again on 1 April 2022 for Te Akau in New Zealand.
In the 2022/23 season, Walker had a record-breaking 203 wins, surpassing the previous best (160) set by Te Akau trainer Jamie Richards in 2020/21.
In a season of milestones, Walker recorded his 100th NZ stakes win in November 2022, the fastest century on 13 January, and his 1000th domestic win in February.
Walker has registered more than 1770 wins as a trainer, including 127 stakes wins in NZ.
Te Akau principal David Ellis CNZM, who has worked with Walker throughout his career, has said many times that Mark has a unique ability to understand the mental side of horses and in turn get the best from them.
Q&A
- What do you consider the most basic principle of horsemanship? Keeping your horses happy and healthy.
- What made you want to train horses? It was too hard making money at showjumping and eventing. I fell into it a bit by accident, really, but it’s been great that I’ve been able to make a living out of something I enjoy doing and anything to do with horses I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed.
- How important is experience and intuition in your job? I think you learn from every experience you have and you never stop learning in this game. You keep evolving all the time and the main thing is that you keep looking forward. The most important thing is acting on what you see with your own eyes.
- What makes you competitive? I’ve always enjoyed all sorts of sports, being competitive and wanting to win.
- Best thing about racing? The thrill you get out of winning races for owners and seeing the buzz they get out of winning races.
- What do you like best about training in New Zealand? There are a lot of good people in New Zealand racing and it’s a pretty close knit group of trainers and a great bond between them all.
- Favourite horse(s)? Distinctly Secret was probably my first real favourite, but you do have soft spots for certain horses. Obviously, Darci Brahma, King’s Chapel, Princess Coup, and all those horses were special at different times and for particular reasons.
- Best race you have seen? Makybe Diva’s third Melbourne Cup win was pretty special.
- Why do you think people enjoy owning racehorses? It’s the thrill of winning which is the main reason. They get to cheer their horse, yell and scream, and that’s part of the fun.
- What’s your passion outside of racing? I don’t really have time for anything else, to be honest, and racing is just what I do.
- Biggest thrill in your racing career to date? I’ve had some great thrills, but hopefully my biggest thrill is still to come.
- What one change would you like to see in the New Zealand thoroughbred industry? More prize money for the owners. It’s the key and the whole thing that drives racing throughout the world is prize money. If you have good prize money then you have more owners involved.
- Most admired person in racing? I’ve always admired Gai Waterhouse because she had to fight hard for her licence and she’s just been incredible for racing.
- Best advice you have received? Colin Jillings said to me: “Never let them know when you’re hurting, son”, meaning that when you’re having a bad run, never show it.
- If you were not training horses, what other career path would you have taken? I would have loved to have been a professional golfer when I was a teenager, but I wasn’t good enough. I got down to a 3 handicap.
- Favourite food and drink? Roast Pork is probably my favourite and a cold Speights off the tap at the end of a long day.
- Most memorable place you have visited? I fell in love with Prague. It was beautiful when I visited in the winter, with the history of the place and the buildings. It would be a toss-up between Prague and Austria.
- Favourite holiday destination? I think anywhere in Europe, but I loved going skiing in Austria. It really was something else and having a white Christmas with the kids was special.
- Where in the world would you like to visit? Probably South Africa, where I’d quite like to do a safari one day.
- Childhood hero? Jack Nicklaus, and then obviously in awe of Tiger Woods.
- One person you would like to have dinner with? Probably the late great Vincent O’Brien. It would have been fascinating to have met him. I read his book and he did extraordinary things training horses, and probably before his time.
Find out more: www.teakauracing.com
