Kim Waugh will chase her second Winter Stakes title with recent acquisition Kingsheir, a horse she compares favourably with her previous winner Oxford Poet.
Oxford Poet won the 1400m sprint six years ago and while Kingsheir is a different style of horse, Waugh says the two have similar ability levels.
“He’s not far off Oxford Poet, he is a very nice horse,” Waugh said.
“He is a very different sort of horse though. Poet was a big, bold frontrunning horse.
“He races on pace, but he’s a bit different to Poet.”
Having had stints with Hawkes Racing and Chris Waller, Kingsheir was purchased by Waugh through a recent Inglis digital sale.
In two starts for the stable, the five-year-old has posted a first-up win at Rosehill, followed by an unplaced effort over 1400m at Randwick that was much better than it appeared on paper.
Lumping 61kg, Kingsheir had to go back to last from an outside draw and while he was never a serious threat, he made steady ground in the straight.
“We knew he was going to need a lot of luck but we needed to get a run into him as well, so we thought, let’s hope we have a bit of luck. But we didn’t,” Waugh said.
“I was still happy with his run.
“He’s a lovely horse, he is very easy and a pleasure to train.”
From barrier five, Kingsheir has drawn to get a much better passage on Saturday in a field reduced to 11 by four early scratchings.
The gelding will be one of three Randwick runners for Waugh along with last-start winner Buba in the Midway Handicap (1600m) and two-year-old True Crime, who steps up to Saturday grade after scoring on debut at Gosford.
