Warrnambool trainer Symon Wilde is going to do something this week he hasn’t done for a long time and send a horse to race in Queensland, with Navy King (NZ) (US Navy Flag) to fly to Brisbane on Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s Gr.1 Queensland Derby (2400m).
Wilde campaigned Baughurst and Hissing Sid in Brisbane 15 years ago but hasn’t been back with a runner since then.
That’s all about to change though, after Navy King impressed connections with his last-start victory at Flemington, convincing them to pay the late nomination fee for Saturday’s $1 million contest.
“We were taken by his win at Flemington. I just thought it might be a good time to go with a late three-year-old that I thought was quite impressive,” Wilde explained.
“It’s a little bit of a roll of the dice, but I think it’s well worth doing since he’s won enough money to warrant doing it. It would be mad not to, he’s lovely and sound, there’s no problems with him, he just seems to be in red-hot form at the moment.
“We just thought, why not?”
Wilde revealed that he’d booked Craig Williams for the ride and emphasized the significance of the barrier draw for Navy King’s Derby hopes.
“I think it’s pretty vital, he just needs to draw between one and six,” Wilde said.
“If he draws down where we can get cover, I think that’s the key to him. He’s got cover quite easily from barrier one at Flemington the other day, that was the big difference. He switched off beautifully and then had a nice turn of foot.
“We’ll be really praying that we draw well because I think that will be really vital for him, if he can just get that cover, he’ll switch off. I don’t think that he’ll have a problem with the 2400m if he does switch off ok.”
Wilde has given Navy King some experience of galloping right-handed ahead of his trip to Queensland this week.
“We’ve galloped him twice the reverse way,” he said.
“Warrnambool were great, they let us on the course proper on Saturday and he had a little roll around right-handed and then again this morning at Terang, so he’s done two gallops, which I think is ideal.”
Navy King is at $15 in Sportsbet’s market for the Queensland Derby.
A son of The Oaks Stud stallion U S Navy Flag, Navy King was bred by Cambridge Stud owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay.
The dam of Navy King is the O’Reilly mare Eliza Blues (NZ), who won two races and was runner-up behind Quintessential (NZ) (Fast N’ Famous) in the Gr.1 Queensland Oaks (2400m) in 2012.
