King Magnus won’t be rushed into anything too grand at this stage of his career after landing a second successive win at Caulfield.
The Robbie Griffiths and Mathew de Kock-trained galloper followed up his victory on July 10 by taking out the MRC Member Alan Yates Handicap (1400m) on Saturday.
It was a difficult watch for punters though as Alana Kelly was strung up in traffic before pouncing late to win comfortably.
“I was a little bit nervous at the 600 (metres) that I didn’t have anything taking me into the race,” Kelly said.
“I was very nervous at the 400 when I was stuck in there and Robbie would have been yelling at me, but when I did get out, he let down really well.”
In the end, King Magnus ($4.20) raced to a 1-¾ length win from Viral ($9) with the $3.70 favourite Great Again a half-head away third.
Griffiths said the stable would not be rushed in pushing King Magnus too high yet and plans to take the gelding to Flemington for a Benchmark 84 race in a fortnight and again make use of Kelly’s claim.
“We won’t be silly yet but we’ve got plenty of time to be ambitious as we get deeper into the season,” Griffiths said.
“She kept him very well balanced and probably rode like a rider a lot older and more experienced than her years and it showed in the latter part of the race the way he really let down well and won with a bit of authority.”
Since opening his campaign and putting on rodeo display at Sandown on June 12, King Magnus has registered two wins and a second.
Griffiths said the only thing he could put King Magnus’ display of bucking down to was he was being ridden with a small saddle that may have pinched him coming out of the gates.