Kingswood wins drama-filled Caulfield Cup

MELBOURNE – Long shot Kingswood has supplied trainer Gavin Bedggood with his biggest success as a trainer taking out the Caulfield Cup on Oct 17.

Bedggood took out the A$6.55 million (S$5.82 million) Group 1 2,400m race with the UK-bred grey to topple his previous biggest win with Mornington Glory in the Group 1 Moir Stakes (1,000m) at Moonee Valley in 2024.

A useful jumps jockey in his day with just shy of 100 wins to his credit, Bedggood turned his hand to training in 2017 with a lower grade of horse.

But he quickly made a name for himself buying horses online and rejuvenating them from the training facilities at Cranbourne.

His first ‘feature’ came in the 2021 Heatherlie Handicap, that Kingswood ironically won on his way to claiming Saturday’s race.

“I’m just rapt for my team at home,” said Bedggood. “They all turn up every day and they work really hard.

“I’m a hard task master, anal and like things done a particular way but they put up with me. I don’t get the results that I’m getting without good people behind me.”

Ridden by John Allen, Kingswood ($188) won by a ½-length from Saint George (Craig Williams) for a grey 1-2 while UK raider Enfjaar (Ray Dawson) ran a gallant third another ½-length away.

Bedggood said he was gutted when the Roaring Lion entire drew barrier 17, but decided to go back and ride him for luck.

“I told Johnny yesterday: ‘you’re riding it’,” said Bedggood.

“I’ve ridden in races and it’s easy to sit on the sidelines and say I want you to do this, I want you to do that, but it’s not an easy task from where we drew.

“I pretty much left it in his hands. We were pretty much three wide all the way, and everyone wanted to question the horse’s credentials at a 1½ mile.

“We couldn’t condemn him on his run in the Zipping Classic (in 2024), it was on a heavy nine, and you had to put a line through it. It’s great to be vindicated.”

In 2025, Bedggood travelled the seven-year-old to New Zealand where he ran in three Group 1 races, including victory at Ellerslie.

He said those races came about at the right time after a limited spring campaign.

“New Zealand was great. We went over there with a target to win a Group 1 because there were limited opportunities for him at that time of year here and he had a limited spring,” said Bedggood.

“I felt a bit sorry for the horse because everyone said he went to New Zealand and knocked off a second-tier type of horse, but I didn’t think that was the case.

“I thought he might have been an Australian Cup horse in the autumn, or something like that, and he’ll come back and be that horse.

“We hit every target this preparation when we sat down and made a plan and to win the Grand Final is fantastic.”

The race was marred by a fall early in the straight involving Half Yours (Mark Zahra), and Ohope Wins (Jye McNeil).

Half Yours fell with Ohope Wins coming down over the top of last year’s Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winner.

Unfortunately, Ohope Wins suffered a catastrophic injury and was humanely euthanised while Zahra and McNeil were transported to hospital for observation and assessment after walking to the ambulance. RACING AND SPORTS