Trainer Chris Waller has revealed that veteran gelding My Kingdom Of Fife will return to the races in the Group 2 Warwick Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
Chris Waller will set his sights lower with My Kingdom Of Fife during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival. Photo by: Steve Hart
My Kingdom Of Fife was included in the nominations for the Listed Rowley Mile (1600m) at Hawkesbury on Thursday as well as both the Warwick Stakes and Group 3 Show County Quality (1200m) at Royal Randwick, but Waller confirmed that the Warwick Stakes under weight-for-age conditions would be the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival starting point for the son of Kingmambo.
“We are not going to run him on Thursday because it is going to be a pretty wet track and first-up over the mile with a big weight is going to be a bit hard,” Waller told Sky Racing HQ.
“He will probably resume in the Warwick Stakes on Saturday.”
My Kingdom Of Fife was kept away from racing for two and a half years, after he won the Group 3 Craven Plate (2000m) at Royal Randwick during the 2011 Spring Racing Carnival, but returned to racing in the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes (1300m) at Royal Randwick on March 15.
The ten-year-old raced exclusively at Group 1 level during his autumn preparation, finishing 14th in the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes (1500m), 10th in the Group 1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) and 12th in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m), but Waller said that he will be eyeing lower grades races for the Group 1 winner during his spring campaign.
“He will need a run or two and we are just going to wait and take a second tier approach with him and target some of the lesser weight-for-age races and stay away from the Cox Plate horses if we can,” Waller said.
My Kingdom Of Fife made his racing debut in the United Kingdom under the care of Sir Michael Stoute in 2007 and he competed at Group level in England for three years before he joined the Waller stable at the end of 2010.
He made his Australian racing debut with an upset win at massive odds in the Group 3 Doncaster Mile Prelude (1600m) at Royal Randwick and went on to take out the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at the same venue and Group 2 Hollindale Stakes (1800m) at the Gold Coast.
My Kingdom Of Fife looked set for a big spring campaign after performed well in both the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes (1600m) and Craven Plate, but he suffered the tendon injury that kept him away from racing for an extended period.
Waller is set to have a big presence in the Warwick Stakes; with Boban, Sacred Falls, Royal Descent, Moriarty, Weary and Junoob all included in the nominations for the $175,000 race.
