King Magnus will run in a $200,000 Group 3 race at Caulfield on Saturday, it’s just a matter of which one.
The gelding has been nominated for both the 1400-metre Victoria Handicap and 2000m Easter Cup with co-trainers Robbie Griffiths and Matt De Kock to study the nominations on Monday before deciding which path to take.
“He’s running, we just need to work out whether we want to take him to a distance that we haven’t done before to explore avenues this racing campaign or whether we keep him at the lesser distance,” Griffiths said on Monday morning.
“We’ll work that out tonight once we’ve had a look at the noms and then work out whether we train him a little bit firmer in the morning for the extra distance or whether we keep a bit of pep in his step for the 1400.”
King Magnus, a 100-rater, was one of 29 nominations for the Victoria Handicap, alongside horses including Streets Of Avalon, I Am Superman, Kissonallforcheeks, and Ayrton, while 25 others expressed an interest in the Easter Cup.
Ballarat Cup winner Zayydani is the highest-rated runner in that race at 106, with Pondus, King Of Leogrance, Spirit Ridge, Nancho and Sacramento the others with a higher rating than King Magnus entered.
Griffiths has always been keen to give the six-year-old son of Magnus and Influential Miss a crack at 2000m and thinks the time could be right with four runs under the best, the latest being a 4-3/4-length 11th placing in the Doncaster Mile.
“He was very, very good in the Doncaster,” Griffiths said. “If he stayed on the back of I’m Thunderstruck and Mr Brightside early in the race he possibly would have run top five or better.
“Unfortunately, he lost six lengths in the first 200 metres of the race and got beat 4.7 so mathematically he could have been in the mix.
“His mum is a half-sister to the mother of Cross Counter, who won a Melbourne Cup, so he’s got a little bit of stamina on his female line.
“Getting to 2000 metres is something that we always thought we might entertain, but there haven’t been a lot of races in that grade for him.
“If it happens to work, it probably gives us opportunities to probably look at those nice races like the Ballarat Cup in the spring if we don’t make the A-list.”