Kings Will Dream to go out with a bang in Stradbroke Handicap

Photo credit: Racing Photos

By Jordan Gerrans

A Cairns-based part-owner of Kings Will Dream believes finishing the tough stayer’s career in Queensland is a fitting send-off for the Group 1 winner.

Cairns builder and racing identity Bill Anderson (pictured) is one of a big team of owners for Kings Will Dream, who have stuck with the gelding through thick and thin, fighting back from a near life-ending injury to claim the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes in 2019.

The Chris Waller-trained Kings Will Dream looked unlikely to get to the races ever again after he fractured his pelvis in the 2018 Cox Plate.

After a successful return to the track, he is now set to wave goodbye in the upcoming TAB Queensland Winter Racing Carnival, with the $1.5 million Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap is likely to be his swansong on the racetrack.

As Anderson has often had to travel to Melbourne to watch his gun galloper go around, he is looking forward to watching Kings Will Dream in his home state.

“I would love to see him get one more win, but he is starting to get some knee troubles so instead of flogging him, we will look to retire him,” Anderson said.

“If he had not gone through the injuries he did earlier on, there is no doubt he would have won a few more.

“We are pleased with him and finishing off like this in Queensland, this is a good way to send him into retirement.”

Fellow Kings Will Dream part-owner Brad Spicer said he had been a special horse for the ownership team and deserved a good send-off.

Anderson initially thought Kings Will Dream would head towards the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 and then on to the Stradbroke.

But with fellow Waller star Nature Strip on the way to the Doomben 10,000, Kings Will Dream will likely bypass it.

The winner of seven races from 29 starts is in Sydney now, before heading to Brisbane and could have a run in NSW before coming north.

“He was pretty stiff and sore, he had a few problems, but the vet has been fixing him and he is running freely now, letting down and stretching out,” Anderson said.

“Chris seems happy with him at this stage with this being his last campaign.”

Kings Will Dream is likely to be retired to one of Waller’s strappers, who will take him and find a second lease on life with him as a show horse.

The seven-year-old chestnut has not gone to the races since running just over five lengths behind the winner in the Listed Ballarat Cup in November of last year.

Racing stalwart Anderson owns a handful of horses in the southern states, mostly with Waller and Lindsey Smith.

He also has a few horses around FNQ and has achieved success in the north of Queensland — winning the Cairns Amateurs with Tanaka and the Newmarket with El Messiah in 2007, among other big races.

Click here for full details on the 2021 TAB Queensland Winter Racing Carnival feature races.