That just emphasises the enormous depth of some Australian group racing, with incredibly competitive super stables powered by wealthy studs, syndicates and rich owners based both domestically and abroad.
Kingswood won a listed race on Melbourne Cup day, while last season he claimed the Group 3 Coongy at Caulfield over 2000m, all this after coming out from Ireland, where he clashed with some handy horses when starting his career.
Bedggood says not only is Kingswood a serious horse, he could also have stallion prospects.
“He is incredibly well bred but it is the type of breeding that might appeal more to a New Zealand stud farm and breeders here than in Australia,” he told the Herald.
“So if he could win this, being a Group 1, he might give himself a chance at a stud career here.”
While Kingswood is largely unknown to Kiwi punters, he does have the ability to run handy to the speed, which is often crucial in 2000m weight-for-age races at Ellerslie.
“He has settled in well and now what we want next is a track in the right range, not a road that is too hard but not too wet and it sounds like Ellerslie usually provides that.”
Kingswood will be ridden by Rory Hutchings and is rated a $7 chance by the TAB for what looks like one of the races of the summer.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
