Fresh from Think About It’s victory in the A$20 million The Everest (1200m), Warwick Farm trainer Joe Pride has earned a tilt at another lucrative feature when King Of The Castle prevailed in the Big Dance Wild Card (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday.
The victory entitles the son of Castledale to a berth in the A$3 million The Big Dance (1600m) on November 7 back at the premier Sydney venue.
From an inside draw, King Of The Castle was only moderate into stride but soon mustered to settle three-back on the fence and came with a well-timed run under jockey Reece Jones to score narrowly from Highlights.
“He came out on his nose,” Jones said. “I thought we were in a bit of trouble. But barriers win races and we were able to sneak up doing no work at all. I got into a lovely spot where he was just allowed to travel and build into a nice little rhythm.
“I have noticed a couple of times he gets there and starts to idle so with the way the race panned out, I was a little bit patient with him and made sure he got to them late and he was superb.”
Bred by Ravelston Stud, King Of The Castle began his career with Riverton trainer Kelvin Tyler, for whom he won three races.
Tyler and wife Vanessa still share in the ownership of the now seven-year-old, who has won a further three races for Pride from 11 starts in Australia, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing.
However, King Of The Castle, whose stable name is Lewis, has endeared himself to Pride, partly because he hails from New Zealand's South Island where Pride spent almost a decade of his childhood.
"I've got a serious horse crush on this bloke," Pride said.
"I don't know what it is, me and 'Lewis', there is something about him.
"I grew up in Dunedin and he's from the absolute bottom of the South Island staring at Antarctica.
"Even though he's a little bit older now, I think the best is yet to come."
When King Of The Castle first joined Pride's yard from New Zealand, the trainer had trouble even getting him to the races.
But he has continued to flourish and improve and while connections would have been happy to get him to the A$750,000 Little Dance (1600m), he now founds himself exempt from a ballot for the bigger prize.
"It has been an interesting journey to say the least but he's a pretty cool horse," Pride said.
"I would have been happy to go to the Little Dance but when you get invited to the Big Dance, who's going to the Little Dance?
"I've got absolutely no dancing in me but luckily the owners have, and Lewis has.
“He finds his way into The Big Dance now. He will give a good account of himself because he came here today dropping a massive amount of weight from a good run at Rosehill and he will get in pretty light in that Big Dance as well and he can only improve.”