Cranbourne trainer Gavin Bedggood will spend Christmas on this side of the Tasman as he prepares his Group Three winner Kingswood for Group One action at Ellerslie on Boxing Day.
With a view towards Kingswood’s prospective stallion career, Bedggood is heading to New Zealand in the hope of securing an all-important elite-level scalp to enhance his credentials prior to transitioning to stud duties.
The British-bred six-year-old hails from a rich pedigree, being by ill-fated Group One-producing stallion Roaring Lion and out of multiple stakes winner All At Sea, a daughter of three-time Group One winner Albanova.
Kingswood is also the half-brother to dual Group One winner and Champion European three-year-old stayer of his year Eldar Eldarov.
“He is a stallion and he has got a great pedigree,” Bedggood said. “He is probably not commercial in Australia but if he were able to win a couple of good races over in New Zealand, he might be able to find a future home over there when he is finished.”
Kingswood has already accrued a solid record, placing in the Gr.3 Gallinule Stakes (2011m) at the Curragh in Ireland as a three-year-old before continuing his racing career in Australia last year where he had two starts for Maddie Raymond before joining Bedggood’s barn.
He won his first two starts for the Cranbourne horseman last spring, including the Gr.3 Coongy Cup (2000m) at Caulfield, before a near 12-month hiatus from racing after he underwent surgery earlier this year.
“He came back in the autumn and did three weeks work and we weren’t 100 percent happy with him,” Bedggood said. “We sent him off for an MRI and they found the very beginning of a hairline fracture. They put a screw in and he hasn’t had an unsound day since.”
Kingswood resumed with a runner-up effort behind subsequent Group One performer Golden Path over 1700m at Flemington in September, and he returned to the iconic track on Melbourne Cup Day to win the Listed Kirin Ichiban Plate (1800m).
“He was good there and he got perfect ground for him,” Bedggood said.
Kingswood has had just the one run since, finishing fourth in the Listed Ballarat Cup (2000m) on unsuitable footing.
“He is a little bit of a Goldilocks, he doesn’t want concrete ground and a track like Ballarat was too rain-affected for him,” Bedggood said.
Bedggood is now looking forward to testing his entire’s talent against some of New Zealand’s best at Ellerslie next week.
While he has yet to campaign a horse in New Zealand, racing on this side of the Tasman is nothing new for Bedggood, with the former jumps jockey having ridden at Ellerslie a little over 10 years ago, and he doesn’t expect the right-handed track to pose any concerns for his charge.
“I came over 10 years ago to ride at the Northern meeting where I had a ride for Mark Oulaghan,” he said. “I have been there and had a look at the track before and it shouldn’t pose any issues, the horse has raced in that direction in Ireland and Sydney.”
Bedggood will meet Kingswood at Auckland Airport on Sunday morning and he will base himself at Pukekohe in the lead-up to the Gr.1 Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic (2000m) on Boxing Day.
“He flies out late Saturday evening and arrives on Sunday morning,” Bedggood said. “I will come over for the week and hopefully we can get a result.”
Depending on his Boxing Day performance, Bedggood said Kingswood may stay in New Zealand in pursuit of other feature targets.
“We will reassess after this one, but there is the Herbie Dyke (Gr.1, 2000m) at the beginning of February, which could be an option,” he said. “There are also races for him through the autumn, which we would strongly look to come back for if he was competitive on Boxing Day.”
By Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
