While Tom Charlton has a Group 1 winner entered for the feature race at Rosehill this Saturday, a stablemate competing in a supporting race could prove to be the stable’s premier staying prospect.
King Pedro is set to compete over 2400 metres for the first time this preparation in the $160,000 Stayer’s Cup. The New Zealand-bred son of Eminent has not experienced much fortune in his three runs this campaign, including a narrow second place over 2000m at Rosehill on June 13, and Charlton is hopeful for a turnaround.
“He probably hasn’t had a lot of luck for his past four runs, to be fair,” Charlton commented. “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 finished second at Gosford over 2100m two starts ago, having been narrowly beaten by Monopolistic after an early surge. This followed a seventh-place finish on debut over 1600m at Randwick on Anzac Day, where he encountered traffic problems in the straight but was ultimately beaten by only a length.
The Stayer’s Cup will be King Pedro’s first start at the 2400-metre distance since another close second in benchmark 78 grade at Randwick on December 20.
King Pedro’s recent misfortune means he has accumulated only two wins from 14 starts and holds a rating of 77, which accounts for his 54.5kg weight on Saturday. Charlton indicated that if he performs well this weekend, he could be considered for Stakes grade.
“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 noted. “He’s clearly got a good future, probably at a grade better than this, and he should stay well.”
Maison Louis, last year’s Queensland Derby winner, will also be at Rosehill. He aims to recover from a poor showing in the Listed Winter Cup (2400m) and will compete in the $200,000 Listed McKell Cup over 2000m. “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.”
Place your bets on the Stayer’s Cup with Australian betting sites and support King Pedro’s bid for a change of luck.