King Pedro ready to prove he’s better than BenchMark grade

Tom Charlton has a Group 1 winner heading to the feature race at Rosehill this Saturday, but it is a stablemate engaged in a support race that could prove the stable’s best staying prospect.

King Pedro will get out to 2400 metres for the first time this campaign in the $160,000 Stayer’s Cup (2400m).

The New Zealand-bred son of Eminent hasn’t had the best of luck in three runs this campaign, including a narrow second placing over 2000m at Rosehill on June 13, and Charlton is hoping for a change of luck.

“He probably hasn’t had a lot of luck for his past four runs, to be fair,” Charlton said.

“You could make a case that he’s been unlucky in all of them, but he’s building into the preparation very well.”

King Pedro ran second at Gosford over 2100m two starts ago, when nabbed late by Monopolistic after taking off early, which followed a first-up seventh over 1600m at Randwick on Anzac Day when he encountered a chequered passage in the straight but was beaten only a length.

The Stayer’s Cup will be his first start at 2400m since another narrow second placing in BenchMark 78 grade at Randwick on December 20.

King Pedro’s recent misfortune means he has only two wins from 14 starts and has a rating of 77, which is why he has just 54.5kg on Saturday, and Charlton said he could be entitled to a crack at Stakes grade if he performs well this weekend.

“We toyed with going to the Caloundra Cup (next week), but if he was to run well in the Stayer’s Cup he could go to the Grafton Cup two-and-a-half weeks later,” Charlton said.

“He’s clearly got a good future, probably at a grade better than this, and he should stay well.”

King Pedro will be joined at Rosehill by Maison Louis, last year’s Queensland Derby winner, who will be out to bounce back after a poor run in the Listed Winter Cup (2400m) back to 2000m in the $200,000 Listed McKell Cup.

“His runs prior to last weekend have all been with plenty of merit, just with barriers draws and things not working out, so I would be confident he can run well at Listed grade.”