Bedggood changes course towards the Five Diamonds with Coongy Cup winner Kingswood

Gavin Bedggood has sets his sights on a rich race in Sydney for Coongy Cup winner Kingswood, who is aiming for a hat-trick of wins at The Valley on Saturday.

The lure of a $2m Five Diamonds prizemoney pool in Sydney early next month saw trainer Gavin Bedggood change plans for his exciting lightly-raced stayer Kingswood, who can make it a hat-trick of wins in Saturday’s Group 3 JRA Cup (2040m) at The Valley.

And Bedggood believes his Group 1-winning sprinter Mornington Glory can bounce back from a last-start defeat to be highly competitive in the McEwen Stakes.

Impressive grey Kingswood is unbeaten in two starts under Bedggood’s care after joining his stable in August, with his last win coming in the Group 3 Coongy last Wednesday week.

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Bedggood initially intended to take the horse to next week’s Bendigo Cup (2400m) following the Coongy success, but switched tack with the opportunity presented by the Five Diamonds (1800m) at Rosehill, which is restricted to five-year-olds.

“The original plan was to go to the Coongy into the Bendigo Cup, but he (Kingswood) is five years old and he is eligible for a Five Diamonds,” Bedggood said.

“Then that will be it for him this prep.”

The change in plan brought the JRA Cup into the equation, where he is a $2.20 favourite with Ladbrokes, with Bedggood confident he will be hard to beat after getting around The Valley’s circuit with ease at Tuesday’s Breakfast With The Best.

The winner of the Five Diamonds, which will be run at Rosehill on November 9, will pocket a tidy $1.15m.

Kingswood will head towards the Five Diamonds in Sydney after Saturday’s JRA Cup at The Valley on Saturday. Picture: Scott Barbour/Racing Photos via Getty Images

“He is progressive and going well,” Bedggood said of Kingswood.

“It was a slowly run race last start (in the Coongy), which probably didn’t assist him. But he was probably just better than his opposition.

“He has got to go up another rung of the ladder, but we haven’t seen his ceiling yet.”

Bedggood conceded Mornington Glory, who won the Manikato Stakes (1000m) last month before finishing a luckless seventh in the Schillaci Stakes (1100m), was a slight risk at the 1200m, despite his good record at The Valley.

The six-year-old is yet to win in five starts at 1200m.

“We are coming off a below par run at his latest start,” he said.

“But if I was to ever try him at 1200m, it would be at this track, and there were no other 1000m options, hence why we are here.

“They just went very fast last time and he was ridden out of his comfort zone. He never got to travel through the early stages. He would have finished closer if he had even luck over the last 200m of the race.”

Originally published as Bedggood changes course towards the Five Diamonds with Coongy Cup winner Kingswood