Horse racing: Kiwi galloper roars into contention for Aussie Derby

Kiwi galloper Regal Lion roared into contention for Saturday's A$2million Australian Derby with a huge performance at Newcastle on Monday.

The Cambridge three-year-old came from near last to storm into second in the A$200,000 Tulloch Stakes, which was to have been run at Rosehill on Saturday but was postponed to yesterday and moved to Newcastle because of the very heavy Rosehill track.

That also meant a shortening of the distance from 2000m to 1850m which wasn't expected to suit Regal Lion but he thrilled trainer Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman by taking a huge amount of ground off his rivals late.

That saw the NZ Derby placegetter shorten from $34 to $8 to win Saturday's Derby at Randwick even on the quick five day turnaround.

"That was an enormous run and hopefully he can back it up on Saturday," said Forsman.

Stablemate White Noise had no luck after being trapped wide early and having to work more forward than planned in what was a less than ideal Derby trial.

The Baker/Forsman stable also produced The Chosen One for a slightly luckless third in the A$1.5million Tancred Stakes, won in brilliant fashion by Duais.

The Chosen One raced handy but got into traffic at the 600m and had horses leaning on him in the home straight but found the line strongly in a superb trial for the Sydney Cup at Randwick on Saturday week.

The Baker/Forsman horses may end up being the only New Zealand-trained horses at The Championships which start on Saturday, with most of the Kiwis heading to Australia this autumn preferring to go to Queensland.