Melbourne Cup dream over as illness derails King Pedro’s spring

King Pedro looked destined for a major Cups campaign after his Grafton win, but one badly timed setback has forced connections to completely rewrite his spring.

The Cups dream for King Pedro has been all but snuffed out, however, connections hope to salvage something from the promising stayer’s spring campaign at his next few starts.

A brilliant winner of the Grafton Cup (2350m) in July, King Pedro was going to be put on a Metropolitan path before an untimely sickness derailed those plans.

He will instead resume in the Group 2 Hill Stakes (1900m) at Rosehill on Saturday and while he remains in the Melbourne Cup (3200m) nominations, co-trainer Tom Charlton says it will come too soon.

“Realistically, the autumn is probably going to be his time,” Charlton said.

“We left him in (the Melbourne Cup), but it was just in case.

“Unfortunately, he was due to follow a ‘Metrop’ path, but he got sick at the wrong time. This is short of his best and a bit off-plan, but it’s the only race to get him going in.”

While Metropolitan hopes were torpedoed, King Pedro does have residual fitness from his winter preparation and has pleased the stable since his return.

Defending titleholder Lindermann shapes as the horse to beat in the Hill Stakes and is a $1.90 favourite, but Charlton expects King Pedro ($15) to be competitive.

“I’ll be interested to see how he runs,” he said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see him run a good race. If the best Lindermann comes he’s obviously pretty effective and hard to beat.

“This weekend will tell us a lot.”

If he does run boldly, King Pedro could head to a race like the Rosehill Gold Cup (2000m) at Randwick on October 31.

Stablemates Starzintheireyes and Mister Rizz were nominated for the Hill Stakes but weren’t among acceptances with both being paid up for the Kia Ora Bloodlines To Headlines Handicap (2000m) on the undercard.

Charlton said Mister Rizz is set to go around from barrier three, while they are debating whether to run Starzintheireyes from the outside gate in 13, or wait for the Group 3 Coongy Handicap (2000m) at Caulfield on Wednesday.

“‘Starz’ could have the option of the Coongy in Melbourne, but we’ll just have a think,” Charlton said.