Racing: My Kingdom Of Fife wins crown

My Kingdom Of Fife wins at Randwick. Photo / Getty Images

My Kingdom Of Fife, once raced by the Queen, made an unexpected arrival on Australia's weight-for-age stage with a stirring Queen Elizabeth Stakes win at Randwick on Saturday.

And amid wild mounting yard celebrations, even a Royal Ascot homecoming received a mention in despatches for the horse who is now unbeaten in two Australian starts under the care of trainer Chris Waller.

"Don't worry about the Wagga Cup, we might head back to Ascot," part-owner Rob Willis declared as he waited for one of the autumn's most unlikely group one winners to return to scale.

Specked as a $13 chance, My Kingdom Of Fife put himself in the race as the field headed for home and he fought hard to ward off the Doncaster Mile winner Sacred Choice ($3.80 eq fav) before winning by three-quarters of a length.

Waller also trained the third placegetter Syreon ($11) who was a neck away third ahead of the other equal favourite Retrieve.

Waller has been sourcing British stayers for several seasons and his forays have led to a domination of Sydney staying races.

In My Kingdom Of Fife he struck a A$300,000 payday with a horse who the owners bought to win the Wagga Wagga Gold Cup in a few weeks.

Asked what was the secret to his success with imported stayers, Waller said: "There is no genius involved, it's an environment thing.

"He is a happy horse. There is something about our stable which is making him happy.

"He's found the key to life again."

With that in mind, Waller hopes to unlock more group one doors for the rising 7-year-old.

"I don't make too many decisions on race day but he would certainly be hard to beat in a Doomben Cup," he said.

In the following race, Waller experienced every emotion possible as he watched Stand To Gain win him his first Sydney Cup while his mind was on fallen favourite Hawk Island.

Hawk Island and Tinseltown both came down at the 700m mark with their jockeys Glyn Schofield and Kerrin McEvoy injured in the incident.

"Seeing Hawk Island get back up on his feet was as good as winning," Waller said. "And Stand To Gain was the right horse for the day.

"He has been set for this race for a long time. He's got his niche, he's a group one two-miler on a wet track."

Stand To Gain went to the front inside the 200m, but it looked briefly as if second favourite C'est La Guerre ($7.50) had his measure.

But there was plenty of fight in Stand To Gain and when Rodney Quinn asked him to raise another effort he responded, while C'est La Guerre's run came to an end.

Older Than Time ($17) came late to finish a length second, while Solid Billing ($61) rallied after looking as if he would be swamped to run third another length away.

- AAP