Horse racing: Mark Walker facing juggling act after joy with juveniles

Tokyo Tycoon in full flight as he takes out the Group 3 Fairview Matamata Slipper. Photo / Trish Dunell

After one of the most prolific days of his training career, Mark Walker is about to turn juggler.

And if he gets it right he could win both domestic group 1 juvenile races in the next five weeks and leave himself with a star filly with whom to target the spring.

Walker won six races between his home track of Matamata and Otaki, extending one of the biggest leads in the history of the New Zealand trainer’s premiership. Most importantly he won both the $120,000 J Swap Breeders Stakes with juvenile filly Zourion and the $85,000 Fairview Matamata Slipper with the unbeaten Tokyo Tycoon, quinellaing the latter with Trobriand.

Tokyo Tycoon gave South African jockey Craig Zackey a feature race win before he leaves for his homeland this Wednesday, hoping to return to ride here again next year,

Walker’s huge day not only gives him a lot of equine firepower for the remaining features of the season but options of what targets to aim them at and while those decisions aren’t set in stone, Walker says he has a plan.

“Tokyo Tycoon will at this stage, all going well, head to the Sistema at Pukekohe on March 11 and then probably that will do him for the season,” said the Te Akau trainer.

“But I’d prefer to bypass the Sistema with Trobriand and aim him at the Sires’ Produce at Awapuni (April 1).

“I think it is the better option for him so it is not about keeping them apart as much as picking the right races for them both.” Zourion is new on the elite juvenile scene but the $475,000 yearling purchase from the Pencarrow draft at Karaka last year is now a group 2 winner for owners Cambridge Stud.

“She is a very exciting filly but I’d like to see her have a break now because she could have a lot of great options in the spring,” says Walker.

“So we will talk that over with her connections but if we do the right thing by her now I think she has enormous potential.”