Kingswood claims historic Caulfield Cup for Gavin Bedggood

Kingswood has supplied trainer Gavin Bedggood with his biggest success as a trainer taking out the Caulfield Cup.

Bedggood took out the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) on Saturday with the UK-bred import Kingswood to topple his previous biggest victory in the Moir Stakes at Moonee Valley in 2024.

A useful jumps jockey in his day with just shy of 100 wins to his credit, Bedggood turned his hand to training in 2017 with a lower grade of horse.

But he quickly began making a name for himself buying horses on-line and rejuvenating them, using the training facilities at Cranbourne.

His first ‘feature’ came in the 2021 Heatherlie Handicap, a race that Kingsood ironically won on his way to claiming Saturday’s race.

“I’m just rapt for my team at home,” Bedggood said.

“They all turn up every day and they work really hard.

“I’m a hard task master. I’m anal and like things done a particular way but they put up with me, and I don’t get the results that I’m getting without good people behind me.”

Ridden by John Allen, Kingwood ($26) scored a half-length win from Saint George ($10) with Enfjaar ($12) a half-length away third.

Bedggood thanked Darren Weir for recommending him to be the trainer of Kingswood.

“He told the owners to send the horse my way, so I’m grateful for that,” Bedggood said.

“When I got it, he told me it reminded him of Puissance De Lune, not because it’s a grey, but because it’s tough, it’s got a good constitution, and it’s got a good capacity.

“He was bang on with everything he said.”

Following Tuesday’s barrier draw, Bedggood said he was gutted when the entire came up with barrier 20, which came into 17 after the scratchings of the emergencies.

His initial reaction was to go back on the gelding and ride for luck.

“I had a chat to Johnny yesterday and said, ‘you’re riding it’,” Bedggood said.

“I’ve ridden in races and it’s easy to sit on the sidelines and say I want you to do this, I want you to do that, but it’s not an easy task from where we drew.

“I pretty much left it in his hands. We were pretty much posted three-wide all the way and everyone wanted to question the horse’s credentials at a mile-and-a-half.

“We couldn’t condemn him on his run here (in the Zipping Classic, in 2024), it was on a heavy nine, and you had to put a line through it.

“It’s great to be vindicated.”

Bedggood travelled Kingswood to New Zealand late last year where he ran in three Group 1 races, including victory at Ellerslie.

He said those races came about at the right time after a limited spring campaign.

“New Zealand was great,” Bedggood said.

“We went over there with a target to win a Group 1 because there was limited opportunities for him at that time of year here and he had a limited spring.

“I felt a bit sorry for the horse because everyone said he went to New Zealand and knocked off a second-tier type of horse, but I didn’t think that was the case.

“I thought he might have been an Australian Cup horse in the autumn, or something like that, and he’ll come back and be that horse.

“We hit every target this preparation when we sat down and made a plan and to win the Grand Final is fantastic.”

The race was marred by a fall early in the straight involving Half Yours, ridden by Mark Zahra, and Ohope Win (Jye McNeil).

Half Yours fell with Ohope Wins coming down over the top of last year’s Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winner.

Unfortunately, Ohope Wins suffered a catastrophic injury and was humanely euthanised while Zahra and McNeil were transported to hospital for observation and assessment after walking to the ambulance.

The historic victory was overshadowed by a frightening fall involving Melbourne Cup champion Half Yours and O’Hope Wins, with the latter sadly euthanised following the incident. Mark Zahra and Jye McNeil were aboard the respective runners when the fall occurred near the 280m mark.

2026 Caulfield Cup: 2400m. Winning time: 2:28.21. F = Fell.