A pool of prominent Kiwi owners have enjoyed a good payday when the Kris Lees-trained Kinloch took out the lucrative A$500,0000 Polytrack Provincial-Midway Championships Final (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday.

The son of I Am Invincible was bred by James Chapman of Jamieson Park, who shares in the ownership of the gelding who dug deep to defeat Kiss Sum and French Marine in a blanket finish.

Ridden by Nash Rawiller, Kinloch raced wide but was galvanised under a typically vigorous Rawiller ride to land the victory, the fifth and most important for the four-year-old gelding.

“At the finish I actually thought Kiss Sum (2nd) had come over the top of them. It’s really good to win for these connections, they put a lot of money into racing both here and in New Zealand so it’s great to have a winner for them on a big day.”

Initially a well-bred colt raced by a number of high-profile New Zealanders in addition to Chapman, including Lib Petagna, Waikato Stud’s Mark and Garry Chittick, Jomara Bloodstock, and bloodstock agent Bruce Perry, the crucial decision was made to geld Kinloch which has enabled him to flourish as a racehorse.

“He was a promising horse all along,” Lees said. “He just lost his way a bit, as colts can do, and wisely they made the right decision to geld him and he’s come back a much smarter horse.”

Bruce Perry identified Kinloch when inspecting Jamieson Park’s 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft and he went to $300,000 to secure his pick of the sale, out of the five-win More Than Ready mare More Beautiful.

“I had seen all the I Am Invincibles just three weeks before at the Gold Coast,” Perry recalled.

“They made a lot of money and I thought this horse was the equal of any of those. He was a very athletic horse, well-balanced and from a lovely family.

“He was probably the horse I liked the most at the sale and I was lucky enough to get him at a reasonable price.”

From 13 starts, Kinloch has now won A$591,765 in prize money with five wins and two placings.