Unheralded Aussie smashes our galloping elite in Ellerslie upset

Kingswood returns triumphant after the Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie. Photo/ Kenton Wright

An inspired training move and a genius ride saw the cream of New Zealand’s weight-for-age horses thrashed by virtually unknown Aussie galloper Kingswood in the $500,000 Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie on Friday.

And the bad news for the Kiwi weight-for-age performers is the under-rated grey galloper is here to stay for the summer.

Kingswood has barely raced at the elite level in Australia so it was a brave move from trainer Gavin Bedggood to even consider bringing him across the Tasman to take on our best 2000m horses.

The 39-year-old Victorian trainer then needed to find a rider as Kingswood’s jockey, John Allen, was suspended so couldn’t make the trip.

Bedggood settled on Rory Hutchings, who had never ridden a horse for him before, and what happened next was one of the great Ellerslie fairytales.

Like many fairytales it didn’t start well.

“After he flopped out of the gates, I thought we were no chance heading out of the straight the first time,” admitted Bedggood.

But Hutchings not only pushed his way off the fence at the 1000m mark but then decided the farcical tempo was ruining his chances.

So Hutchings launched and went all in. He sent Kingswood forward at speed, looped the field to lead and said ‘Catch me if you can’.

They couldn’t.

Kingswood bolted clear from Jaarffi, owned by race sponsors Brendan and Jo Lindsay, while Legarto just held out La Crique for third, the latter losing a shoe in the race.

“What about the ride?” said a stunned Bedggood, who himself rode in a Great Northern Steeplechase at Ellerslie during his jumps jockey career.

“He got that spot on and such a brave thing to do and then the horse did the rest.”

While Hutchings was stunned by the ease of the win, his confidence that Kingswood could be a player was boosted by the feel he gave him in trackwork on Wednesday.

“They were going that slow I had to go and when I was able to get past the leader that easily I was smiling,” said Hutchings, who has always had a bit of Group 1 magic in him.

The new team of Kingswood, Bedggood and Hutchings will now set their sights on the other two 2000m jewels in the New Zealand racing crown, the Herbie Dyke Stakes at Te Rapa on February 7 and the Bonecrusher NZ Stakes back at Ellerslie on Champions Day, March 7.

One of the reasons Bedggood and his owners even entertained coming to New Zealand when the idea was pitched to them by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing newcomer Mitch Lamb was the tiny possibility that Kingswood could one day have a stallion career here.

Kingswood is by the late champion racehorse Roaring Lion, who sadly passed away before he ever got the chance to start stallion duties at Cambridge Stud, and well enough bred on his dam’s side to have a shot at getting picked up by a New Zealand stud if he can pick up those next two Group 1s.

But regardless of what Kingswood does for the rest of this summer, his win is proof that chance favours the brave. Which in this case was the horse, trainer, connections and, most definitely, the jockey.

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.