My Kingdom of Fife, the horse bought from the Queen to win a Wagga Cup, has caused a minor upset with his dominant win in the race named after his former owner, the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m).
The Kingmambo gelding started at $13 but he sustained a long run to win by three quarters of a length from Doncaster Mile winner Sacred Choice ($3.80), who looked the winner at the 200m mark.
Syreon ($11) was third, a neck away.
My Kingdom of Fife came to Australia with a reputation as a plodding handicapper, with three wins from 19 starts.
While his form was around good horses like Hong Kong Vase placegetter Redwood and the promising Rainbow Peak, he came to notice with a promising win in the Group 3 Royal Parma Stakes (1600m) two weeks ago at the big odds of $151.
Trainer Chris Waller was not expecting My Kingdom of Fife to come to hand so quickly.
“Those English horses have a lot of depth, but he was tried more than most,” Waller said.
“There’s obviously something in our stable that he enjoys.”
Waller said the Queen was aware that her former horse had won last start.
“She expressed her happiness for the owners,” Waller said.
“Hopefully we can go to better races from here.”
Jockey Nash Rawiller said that he thought his mount was struggling halfway through the race.
“I was riding him on a long rein, he seemed to be up on the bridle, I thought he wasn’t handling the track,” Rawiller said.
“But once I let him go he was impressive.”
Both second placegetter Sacred Choice and the fourth placed Retrieve may have run their last races in Australia, with Sacred Choice possibly retired to stud and Retrieve joining Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation.
Written by Andrew Hawkins
