A lead-up run at Sandown before jetting off to Hong Kong for December’s big card is most unusual nowadays but that is how the racing calendar falls this year, and Gavin Bedggood is approaching it bullishly.
Kingswood landed a knockout blow for many punters when he scored at $26 in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) on October 17 and although he will not be anywhere near those odds again on Saturday at Sandown, his trainer is looking for a big showing before heading to the Asian racing spectacular for the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase (2400m) on December 13.
The six-year-old had his first mandatory inoculation for the trip only a few days after his Caulfield win and the booster will occur a few days after next his next assignment is the Group 2 Zipping Classic (2400m).
“Four weeks between runs allowed us to give him a quiet week and we’d had to tighten the screws again since,” Bedggood said after Kingswood galloped at Caulfield on Tuesday.
“I’d like to see him win again this week. To be going over there and racing on the world stage, he’d have to be winning or being unlucky not to win for me not to want to go.”
Even more significantly for Kingswood, he will be the first Caulfield Cup winner to start in the Zipping Classic in the same year since Bunratty Castle in 1968.
Under the handicap conditions, Bunratty Castle carried 8 stone 11 pounds or just over 55.5-kilos where Kingswood lumps 59-kilos under the current weight-for-age status.
Bedggood means business about going to Hong Kong with a competitive runner and carries a similar mindset when he enjoyed the Caulfield Cup moment but got straight back into what was ahead very soon after.
“When I got to work on the Monday morning and you have to open the front gate at 2:45am, it was back to normal,” he added.
Bedggood was pleased with the grey’s outing at Sandown where in early markets for the Zipping Classic where he is the $4 second favourite behind the Joseph O’Brien-trained Small Fry at $2.10.
