Benji King has achieved quite a lot in the thoroughbred industry and now he can add winning trainer to that list.
The Waikato horseman is in his first season of training and he was delighted to get on the board at Hastings on Thursday courtesy of Glenamaddy in the Carpet King HB Maiden (2100m).
“I am absolutely rapt. It was nice to get the monkey off my back,” King said.
“Gate one was a huge positive, so I was a little bit confident. I knew she would run well but I didn’t think she would kick away from them like that on that ground (Heavy10).”
A member of Brighthill Farm’s King family, Benji was pleased to get the win for his father Nick, sister Sophie, and brothers Harry and Charlie, who share in the ownership of the homebred filly.
“The other thing that made it a big thrill was to get one for the family,” King said.
“With the family scattered all around the world, you get Whatsapp messages all through the night and day. It is an awesome thrill to get the win for the ownership group, it makes it a lot more special.”
While King has been around horses his entire life through his family’s stud farm, it wasn’t until later in life that King was drawn to the racing side of the industry.
He had spent his early years working at Brighthill Farm before being awarded the Sunline Trust Management Scholarship in 2015, which took him to England, Ireland and America, where he furthered his breeding knowledge.
The racing side of the industry had always appealed to King and upon his return to New Zealand he itched that scratch and went about gaining a grounding in the sport through family friends, before flying across the world to learn from the world’s best.
“I hadn’t been in the racing industry at all really, it has been more breeding. It was something that I wanted to have a crack at, mainly the riding side first of all,” he said.
“I went to some good friends of ours, Jason and Kelly Price, they taught me the ropes and then I went up to England and worked for Sir Mark Todd, he really tidied up my riding.
“He is arguably the best rider in the world. It is just all of the little things that help, so it was great to learn off him.
“I came home and started to ride work for Te Akau in the mornings. You ride so many different horses there and that is where I really honed my riding.”
The natural progression was to train his own team and King took his chance when the opportunity to train Glenamaddy arose.
“She is a homebred filly and we have had her the whole way through. We took her to a few sales and luckily, as it turned out, we didn’t sell her,” he said.
“We put her in work with Peter and Dawn Williams. Peter rung Dad one day and said she needed time, so I rang Peter and asked if I could train her, and he said yes.”
King has grown his team to a handful of runners, and he said he enjoys the variety of training them in the morning before heading out to Brighthill Farm in the afternoon.
“I have five in work at the moment and a few breakers, and do agistment at our Walton property,” King said.
“I have no aspirations of being a big trainer, but I would one day like to get up to training 15 or 20 horses and have a few nice ones. That is the ultimate dream.
“I still want to have quite a bit of involvement in the stud, it is something I do find hard to let go. It is nice to work a few hours there and keep my eye in.
“I am extremely lucky that I have got the support of my Dad, who runs the stud. I also have great support from Paul Richards, who I rent boxes off and I am working with. If I have got some stud stuff to do, he is awesome. I am very lucky.”
