Latest News

By Ray Hickson

Group 1 winning jockey Andrew Adkins is certain the best is yet to come from Private Eye’s half-brother King’s Secret and is quietly confident he can make an impact at Rosehill on Saturday.

Jockey Andrew Adkins (Pic: Steve Hart).

The lightly raced three-year-old is making his city debut in the Toyota Forklifts Handicap (1100m) and Adkins his looking forward to reuniting with him having been on board for his first-up maiden win.

King's Secret followed that easy Gosford victory with a narrow defeat three weeks ago when coming back in distance.

“He won quite well first-up and it might have been that touch sharp for him the other day at Kembla,’’ Adkins said.

“He was muddled up behind them in the early part of the straight and the winner had that advantage on him.

“He’s a nice horse, where he gets to is a question mark – I don’t know if he’s as good as his brother – but he’s a really nice horse and he’s on the way up that’s for sure.”

Adkins took the impression that the gelding was a work in progress into his maiden win and came away thinking he was only going to improve.

While he’s a $10 chance with TAB on Thursday, Adkins said he has the scope to be competitive.

“He was a horse that was going quite keen and they rode him quite negatively in his trial so he could go to the races and do those one percenters the right way,’’ he said.

“It obviously paid off because he won quite well.

“It would not surprise me to see him win, he gave me a good feel first-up. I loved his action late, he really flattened out like a nice horse and attacked the line the right way.

“As long as he races well like he has in his two runs back he’s most definitely a very good chance.”

King’s Secret’s trainer Joe Pride said he is throwing the horse in the deep end at Rosehill but, like Adkins, believes he has the scope to reach a higher level than he’s been to so far in his four starts.

“My option was to take him to Gosford or wait until Saturday in a bit better conditions and with your BOBS bonus you’re running for $100,000,’’ he said.

“It’s a lot harder but he’s a pretty handy little horse. He’s only small but he’s got a bit about him.

“He’ll keep getting better as he gets older just like his brother did.”

Touristic is Adkins’ ride in the Listed $200,000 Kia Lord Mayors Cup (2000m) and he said there’s a case to be made for the Peter Snowden-trained gelding to perform.

He ran fourth in the Gosford Cup last start where Rachel King made a bold midrace move to attack the leader, and eventual winner Les Vampires, before the turn.

“He’s a pretty consistent horse, he’s always running around the mark,’’ he said.

“I feel he’s one of those horses that things have to go perfect, we need those one percenters going our way.

King's Secret runs second at Kembla Grange on May 10

“He’s been working really well at home and he’s racing that way as well.”

The six-year-old’s last win was around this time last year at Mornington before he finished runner-up in the McKell Cup, Grafton Cup and Premier’s Cup.

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Rosehill meeting