QTIS Jewel runners fit for a King

By Jordan Gerrans

Joshua King has taken the steering wheel of Windemere Stud’s runners over the last couple of years and the former jockey feels he has two runners ready to make a splash on QTIS Jewel day this Saturday.

The 28-year-old was the long-trusted lieutenant of stalwart Darling Downs horseman Steve Tregea before Tregea opted to take a step back from day-to-day training duties and focus on his Windemere Stud operation.

King – a former jockey before going into training – has produced a steady stream of winners in his first few seasons in the training ranks.

The fledgling King barn is yet to break through at black-type or feature level and with two live chances come the Jewel occasion, the Clifford Park trainer has high hopes for his trip to the Gold Coast.

“It has been really good – we have seemed to find a nice horse each year,” King said of his first few seasons training.

“We had Argyle Lane last year and we now have Highbar and Time To Cry.”

The now retired Argyle Lane won five of his 11 career starts and contested the inaugural King Of The Mountain at Clifford Park.

It is now Highbar and Time To Cry’s time to shine as the stable’s flag bearers.

Highbar heads to the older edition of the QTIS Jewel while Time To Cry will carry the team’s hopes in the two-year-old event.

Highbar went down by just over a length in the Jewel Prelude at Doomben last month while King felt Time To Cry did not handle conditions on the same day and will be better suited this week.

King was a long-time stable foreman and reliable track work rider for Tregea after stepping away from his own riding career.

Tregea credited King for taking on the responsibility to educate and work with the now retired Incentivise before he went on his dazzling Melbourne campaign with Peter Moody.

While Tregea is only a phone call away, King says there is lots of new pressure and accountability around being the team’s sole trainer.

The majority of the horses King trains are bred and owned by Tregea’s Windemere Stud.

“There is a lot more responsibility in a way and I still need to answer to him a lot more because he is not here as much,” King said.

“They are pretty much all his horses, he has bred them all and has had them since day one. They are like his little babies.”

King works with around a dozen horses at a time, a number which he says is manageable.

He is keen to take on more horses in the near future.

“I have really eased into it quite nicely,” the former jockey said of his training career.

“Steve has always been there to guide me along if I had any questions, he was there to answer them.

“It makes it a hell of a lot easier with Steve being there and I am spoiled really in a way with having him there.

“As a trainer now, you need to ensure everything is running on time and going smoothly.”

Tregea will still drop in every now and again to give King and the staff a hand with the racing team but usually has his hands full with around 40 horses at Windemere Stud going through the stages of mares, foals, yearlings and spellers.

Highbar looms as the most likely of the King runners to taste Jewel glory this Saturday.

The three-year-old gelding is yet to run outside of the money in five career starts, which has included three victories.

He started well in the market in the Jewel Prelude last month and was far from disgraced in his second-placed effort by Defiant Spirit.

The son of Spieth was a month between runs at his most recent race start and King says he will be ‘spot on’ for Saturday.

“He is coming along as a really nice horse,” King said.

“He is showing everything and doing everything right.

“He has always shown a lot from day one, he is a very chilled horse and not much worries him, he does not get fired up very often.

“He does everything right, which makes it a hell of a lot easier.

“He has really gone on with it and now it is a matter of seeing how good he is and keep stepping up and going over the ground.”

King noted Highbar’s success as a galloper can be tracked back to the early education given by apprentice hoop Tessa Townsend before she relocated to North Queensland.

Time To Cry won on debut in a city midweek event before finishing sixth in her Prelude event at Doomben.

King thinks she will be competitive against her own age group again this Saturday.

“She is a promising two-year-old,” King said.

“She was a bit unlucky last time and she did not really handle the track as it was a little bit wet and an unknown. Hopefully she should be competitive down at the Gold Coast.”

As of Friday morning, Time To Cry is a $20 chance with the bookmakers while stable mate Highbar is on the second line of betting at $7.50 in the older division. 

Staged on March 9, the $2 million Queensland Jewel race day will return to the Gold Coast Turf Club this year and it will once again be headlined by the $500,000 2YO QTIS Jewel and the $500,000 3YO QTIS Jewel.

King was set to head to Kilcoy on Thursday with two runners, Mordecai and Cryptic Verse, before the meeting was rained out.