Amid a brilliantly successful season at Godolphin, the emergence of Rachel King as an important cog in Australian racing's biggest machine might have gone unnoticed.
But the English-born King is doing her best to keep her name high up in James Cummings' mind, riding a couple of late-season stakes winners for Godolphin, including Gaulois (Street Cry {Ire}), for his first victory in nearly a year in Saturday's Listed Civic S. at Rosehill.
Rachel King winning the Listed Civic S. at Rosehill aboard Gaulois
That followed up her recent successes on the promising Deprive (Denman) in the Listed June S. for Cummings.
All up she has ridden 10 winners for Cummings in the past 12 months. That might seem a small share of the 207 winners Cummings has trained this season but she is making a considerable impression on assistant trainer and Hall of Fame jockey Darren Beadman.
"She's really gone to the next level I think, as far as her ability goes and the way she is able to match it with the boys in Sydney. It's probably one of the hardest ranks to be riding in, when you've got the likes of Hughie (Bowman) and Kerrin (McEvoy) and Tommy (Berry) and I've probably left out another five or six there," Beadman told Sky Sports Radio.
"She's really gone to the next level I think, as far as her ability goes and the way she is able to match it with the boys in Sydney." - Darren Beadman
"They are boys that are very competitive. It’s not easy. She's very determined, but the thing I like about Rachel, she just goes about her business and doesn’t get flustered. In a race, she doesn't find too much trouble, she keeps the horses well balanced and horses seem to run for her."
Rachel King after her recent win on Gaulois
King, who was champion apprentice last season and rode her first Group 1 winner aboard Maid Of Heaven (Smart Missile) in the G1 Spring Champion S. earlier this season, is determined to make the most of her opportunities with Godolphin.
“It’s great to win in these colours,’’ King said after the win of Gaulois. “This is my first day back after a couple of weeks off and I’m very grateful that Godolphin keep supporting me.’’
“It’s great to win in these colours." - Rachel King
She missed much of the Sydney autumn carnival with a broken collarbone suffered in a fall at Tamworth but has bounced back with 22 winners since April, seven of them for Cummings.
The win aboard Gaulois was a fine audition for future rides. She was the eighth jockey to jump aboard the 4-year-old in the eight starts since his last win. A noted backmarker, she brought him home with a perfectly timed run and he scored his first stakes success at start 24.
"She has performed that type of ride on numerous occasions. One of her first rides for us was with Isaurian (Exceed And Excel) at Warwick Farm (in March 2018) and she rode him from back in the field and weaved a passage though the runners which is not an easy task," Beadman said.
"You have to work with the animal and even yesterday with Gaulois, he hadn’t won for a while and for her to bring him into the race at the prime time to give him the confidence, it was a great effort."
A deserved breakthrough
Gaulois has now earned close to $500,000. He finished behind subsequent Group 1 winners Trekking (Street Cry {Ire}) and Pierata (Pierro) as a 2-year-old before eventually breaking his maiden in an off-season race at Rosehill.
He contested stakes races in Perth as a 3-year-old before picking his way through benchmark races later last season, resulting in his most recent win at Randwick in July.
Since then he has always been competitive and often unlucky trying to find that next win. Beadman hopes Saturday's breakthrough can launch him into better races going forward.
"He ran third to Trekking at one of his first starts. He has always had good ability, but James had trekked him around over to Perth, where he was a bit unlucky and drew a bad gate. He's been up north and all over the countryside, it was a really deserving win for horse and rider," he said.
"It was a really deserving win for horse and rider." - Darren Beadman
King knows that the likes of Bowman, James McDonald and Kerrin McEvoy will still have call on the best Godolphin rides, but she will keep putting her name forward when the opportunity presents it.
A deserved win for Rachel King and Gaulois in the Listed Civic S.
Latham, Lanigera open account
That's something that another well-travelled jockey, Keegan Latham. will be looking to do having ridden his first winner for Godolphin on Saturday at Newcastle.
The South African-born hoop was having just his third ride for Cummings when winning impressively aboard the talented Lanigera (Denman) at Newcastle.
Lanigera had contested stakes races at his first four starts, but dropped back to a Newcastle maiden and found his confidence, something that Beadman said was very important.
"He's a very precocious horse and he just wants to get on with the job. He needed retraining to certain extent and I guess James and Dizzy (Appleby), they have tried to harness his enthusiasm. That can happen when you set them alight as an early 2-year-old back in the spring," he said.
"Yesterday, the sectionals that he ran, it was only 900m, but he broke 33 seconds, that says something about his brilliance."
"We can manage that, and Keegan gave him a terrific ride in that he wasn't pressured too early and gave him the confidence at the vital stage at the furlong, when he had to find another gear. He was strong on the line which is a good sign for the future."
He became Cummings' 30th 2-year-old winner in what has been an incredible season.
