Racing
Well-related 3YO wins again at Randwick
Private Eye’s younger sibling King’s Secret continues to rise through the grades.
Andrew Adkins isn't sure where the ceiling is for King's Secret but he is happy to be enjoying the ride after the gelding clinched the BOBS Horse of the Year crown with his victory at Randwick.
A half-brother to multiple Group 1-winning stablemate Private Eye, King's Secret ($6.50) took his record to four wins from eight starts with a half-length victory over Stardeel ($3.90 fav) in the Petaluma Handicap (1100m) at Randwick on Saturday.
The win all but sealed him the BOBS title, an award open to eligible two and three-year-olds with the victor the horse who collects the most in bonuses during the season, his four wins all coming since April.
Adkins has been aboard for each and says such has been the Joe Pride-trained gelding's progression, he doesn't want to put a lid on what heights King's Secret might reach.
"Joe and his team keep raising the bar and he keeps saying, 'how high?'" Adkins said.
"He's going obviously super this preparation. He is really coming to, he's maturing.
"I was a bit worried going to the gates. That was the calmest he has ever been. It's just him maturing, him switching on and learning to do all the right things and all the basics.
"He is really getting a hang of that winning style now."
The only blot to King's Secret's copybook this campaign was at Rosehill last month when he finished out of the placings.
Adkins said Pride took the blame for that effort and quickly rectified the issue.
"Two back when he went amiss there at Rosehill I said, 'I don't know what's gone on with him' and Joe said, 'I had him too fresh'," Adkins said.
"He took him back home and sorted him out. Gave him a bit of work and he came back and won. Kudos to Joe and his team, they've done a great job."
With Pride in Melbourne to watch In Flight in the Sir John Monash Stakes (1100m), stable representative Orla Pearl said Adkin's intimate knowledge of King's Secret was key.
She added that the fact the gelding was a relation to one of the stable's favourite horses made his performances this preparation even more significant.
"Andrew rode him brilliantly today. He knows him so well now. Before the race he said, 'we won't be riding the race, we'll be riding the horse' and that's exactly what he's done," Pearl said.
"And the horse, he is just so versatile and he has proved that.
"It's impressive. To see a mare throw horses like that again and again and to have the family in the stable. It's something special."
This season is the second in succession in which a Pride-trained horse has claimed BOBS Horse of the Year honours with In Flight capturing it in 2023-24.
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