Just as Hot And High had done in the WS Crawford Stakes one race earlier, the Daniel Morton-trained King Of Light made it seven wins from eight career starts when taking out the $200,000 Group 3 Eurythmic Stakes at Ascot over 1400m.
It was an impressive victory by the four-year-old son of Earthlight, who was already the early favourite for one of Western Australia’s big summer season highlights, the $1.5 million Group 1 Railway Stakes, which will be contested over 1600m on November 21 at Ascot.
Both the result and the way in which King Of Light went about achieving victory will certainly have enhanced his already formidable reputation, as this was no ‘gimme.’ It was a win that was earned on pure class in circumstances where it would have been easier to run a nice second or third, which, given that his grand final is over a month away, would have still been a satisfactory result.
And it was an effort well served by the ride of jockey Lucy Fiore.
Racing first-up … and jumping as the $2.30 race favourite from barrier ten out of eleven … Fiore took King Of Light back at the break, and he raced in second-last place, just under eight lengths off the leader (the $11 chance West Star) in the first half of the race.
By saving ground, Fiore had improved King Of Light’s position, and the deficit to West Star was down to four lengths on the turn, but King Of Light still had the bulk of the field stretched across the track in front of him.
A little bit of patience by Fiore and a deft flick of the wrists to move King Of Light marginally to the outside … and suddenly there was a gap for King Of Light to chase into … but the four lengths he still had to make up looked like they could be a problem … that is until the Morton-trained runner’s class kicked in.
It did take a moment for his acceleration to take hold but, when it did, King Of Light arrived with meaning. He still had 1.50 lengths to make up with 100m left to run, but he had now built race-winning momentum and was not going to be denied … even if he was only able to claim the win in the final few strides from the Jason Miller-trained Bonjoy ($8).
It was a frenzied finish close-up behind that, with Let’s Galahvant (a $61 chance who finished third), Watch Me Rock ($7 – finished fourth) and Zipaway ($21 – finished fifth) only having 0.30 lengths between them, as less than half a length separated the first five runners across the line.
