Argyle Lane spearheads King's attack for first city winner

By Glenn Davis

Rookie trainer Joshua King is hopeful of fulfilling his dream to train his first metropolitan winner at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

King, who took over the bulk of Steve Tregea’s Toowoomba stables at the start of the season, gets his chance when Argyle Lane and stable mate Enabler clash in the Class 3 Plate over 1000 metres.

King is a former jockey, who rode 103 winners, and has only been licensed for three months but is highly regarded for his horsemanship.

The highly promising Argyle Lane has won all three starts of his career and returns for the first time since winning a Class 2 event at Ipswich on August 24.

Enabler - who will be ridden by Larry Cassidy on Saturday - also returns from a break after finishing second to the Rob Heathcote-trained Hatchet in a Benchmark race at Doomben on August 10.

The pair warmed up for their clash with a 650 metre barrier trial at Toowoomba on Tuesday in which Argyle Lane finished third while Enabler tailed the field of five behind the Kevin Kemp-trained Tisani Emperor.

“Argyle Lane trialled well but he wasn’t asked to do much and did the bare minimum,” King said.

“Enabler finished a fair bit behind him but he never does much in trials.”

King is pleased with Argyle Lane’s progress since the gelding returned to work a month ago and expected the barrier trial would top him off for his comeback.

“He came back a bit heavier after his break but the trial will top him off and he’s fit enough to win first-up,” King said.

“Enabler also is coming along well and races well first-up.”

King has no immediate plans with Argyle Lane and will see how he performs before shaping his future campaign.

Argyle Lane is a half-brother to multiple Group 1 winner Incentivise and is the last foal of Tregea’s Windemere Stud mare Miss Argyle, who was crowned Queensland’s Broodmare Of The Year this week.

Miss Argyle tragically died last year after producing nine foals, all of which went on to win races.

Incentivise was the star of last year’s Queensland winter carnival before he was sold and went on to win at the highest level in the Makybe Diva, Turnbull Stakes and Caulfield Cup for Melbourne trainer Peter Moody.

He was then injured and hasn’t raced since finishing second to Verry Elleegant in last year’s Melbourne Cup.