Kolding (NZ) (Ocean Park) will head straight into the Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m) without another run after posting an important win in the Gr.2 Hill Stakes (2000m) at Randwick.
Trainer Chris Waller scratched the last-start George Main Stakes winner from the Epsom Handicap specifically to trial him for a start in the weight-for-age championship.
Kolding’s only other run over the Cox Plate distance was an unplaced effort in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) in the autumn which Waller said was inconclusive.
“In the Queen Elizabeth he was at the end of his prep and it was a wet track so now was the time to try him after he had just won a Group One race,” Waller said.
“He will go to the Cox Plate. He deserves to. He doesn’t like Caulfield but let’s hope he likes Moonee Valley.
“Moonee Valley has a great camber and I’ve never taken a horse there that hasn’t handled it.”
Kolding finished out of the placings in two Caulfield runs earlier this year at his only two starts in Melbourne.
But he has bounced back to his best in Sydney this spring and his victory in Saturday’s Group Two Hill Stakes (2000m) was comprehensive.
Kolding ($3.60) ambled up to the leaders on straightening and shot to the front to score by two lengths over Avilius ($6.50) with Fierce Impact ($2.30 fav) running on from the back for third.
His success continued a flying start to the day for James McDonald, giving the jockey his fourth win from as many races after he earlier scored on Laure Me In and juveniles Enthaar and Shaquero.
A son of Waikato Stud stallion Ocean Park, Kolding was bred by retired Australian businessman and former professional rugby league player, Warren Pegg, who has been a client of the Hawkins family’s Wentwood Grange since it commenced operation in the year 2000.
Out of the Danzero mare Magic Star, Kolding is a half-brother to multiple stakes winning stayer Sampson.
Offered through Wentwood’s 2017 New Zealand Bloodstock Yearling Sale draft, Kolding was purchased by Guy Mulcaster for $170,000 on behalf of prominent Queensland owner Neville Morgan.
Kolding has now won 10 of his 24 starts with a further five placings and has career earnings of A$5,897,650.
