Earlier in the year, Bevan and Robyn Wilson mapped out a plan for three of their talented gallopers to tackle Saturday’s Gr.3 Winning Edge Presentations Winter Cup (1600m), and despite a few challenges, the trio will each take their place in the Riccarton showpiece.
Well-known for training and racing their homebred horses, the Ashburton couple have had their best season since Robyn joined the partnership in 2018, training 10 winners and 12 placegetters from just 45 starters.
Royal Valour, Lord Darci and Victorian Charm have all contributed to that amount, with the former having defeated his stablemates last start in the Oamaru Cup (1600m), who finished fourth and sixth respectively.
The Wilsons had a task of watching all three in the race but were satisfied with each of their efforts.
“We were very pleased with him (Royal Valour), his preparation going into the race had gone really well and he raced accordingly, and was well ridden,” Bevan Wilson said. “He won quite well I thought.
“It was a bit hard watching all three of them at a time and Victorian Charm disappeared on me a bit on the corner, but Kylie (Williams, jockey) wasn’t disappointed with his run. She said that she got in the wrong place at one stage and was held up a little bit, and when she did make a run, Royal Valour probably beat him to a gap and he lost his momentum.
“We were really pleased with him, he was plugging away well at the line and only two lengths from the winner.”
Victorian Charm had missed an abandoned race at Ashburton in the lead-up, while facing a trial of his own was Lord Darci, a common theme for the gelding since he won the Winter Cup three years ago.
“At the time, he was a four-year-old, so we thought it might’ve been a bit early for him, but we thought we might as well have a go,” Wilson said. “As it’s turned out, it was probably a good idea because he’s been in the wars a bit since.
“He’s had a couple of career-threatening injuries, mainly self-inflicted, because he’s a bit of a fidget. He’s not very settled travelling on the float and he didn’t enjoy being tied up either.
“He was inclined to kick the inside of his hocks while standing, which we think caused an infection in his joint. Things were looking a bit grim for a while there, but fortunately he’s come through that, and then it was on to the next thing.”
The Wilsons were rapt to have their stable star back in winning form immediately when resuming this year in June, but he was back to his old tricks following the race.
“We were thrilled with his win at Dunedin, but a day or so later, he started stiffening up in the paddock and that’s likely happened on the float as well,” he said. “We had been really happy with how he travelled, but obviously he must’ve done something.
“That’s been a setback as far as this race goes, missing a couple of races, but as it turned out, the Ashburton race didn’t happen anyway.
“A positive to take out of it is that he hasn’t earned any more rating points, so he gets in pretty well at the weights (54.5kg), obviously with Belardo Boy taking most of the weight.”
Looking back on the preparation, it has been far from smooth sailing, and Wilson can hardly believe they’ll saddle all three on Saturday.
“Their work has been virtually identical since Oamaru, they had a couple of quiet days and then we got back into it, they’ve had one decent workout since then, which went well enough,” he said.
“It’s a bit unbelievable to us, it is hard to get a horse to any race meeting, so to have three of them there and the other in the open sprint, it’s a bit of a feat in itself.
“We just hope they can put their best foot forward on the day, that would make it even better.”
Their representative in the Speight’s Summit Ultra On Tap Open (1200m) will be Victor Rouge, a half-brother to both Lord Darci and Victorian Charm.
The quirky galloper won on both Saturdays at last year’s Grand National carnival, defying the Wilsons initial thought about the straight chute.
“He likes a bit of room, we spent a couple of years avoiding the Riccarton straight because we were trying to get him to settle in his races, but we ran out of options and it turns out that he quite likes it,” he said.
“He raced really well there over this week last year, so we hope he can do the same thing again. He’s in open company now, so it won’t be as easy, but he’ll be there with a chance.”
The son of Burgundy will be partnered by apprentice jockey Yogesh Atchamah, who was in the saddle when he finished a close-up fourth in the same event at Oamaru.
“He relaxed nicely for the young fella (Atchamah) and we were pleased with his effort,” Wilson said. “We thought with a run like that, he would be hard to beat, but he came out off the track a bit and the first two shot through on the fence, which is just how racing in the winter goes sometimes.
“It’s certainly a help with the weights, but also we’ve been lucky to get apprentices that listen to what we’re looking for and they’ve done a good job. We’ve been lucky to have them, it’s just a shame that Hayley (Hassman) is missing out at the moment too.
“She had an injury before Oamaru, or she would’ve been on one of our horses, and she’s now unavailable for this week too.”
