Craig out to become third generation of Grylls jockeys to win the Auckland Cup on Sunday

Lincoln King’s lead-in race to Sunday’s $500,000 Auckland Cup has given jockey Craig Grylls plenty of confidence that he can become the third generation of Grylls riders to bag the big Ellerslie feature.

Bookies have the Lincoln Farms’ stayer third favourite for the cup and should Grylls score he will follow his father Garry who triumphed at Ellerslie in 1986 on Kerry Lane and his late grandfather John who kicked Kia Maia home in 1975.

The feat is certainly unprecedented in the last 60 years and it’s a fair bet it has never been achieved since the inaugural cup was run in 1874.

Craig Grylls, left, riding trackwork in 2005 at the age of 15 with his dad Garry.Grylls is also out to emulate his dad in taking out both the Wellington Cup and Auckland Cup. Garry rode Oarsman to win the big one at Trentham in 2003 though he never did the double on the same horse in the same season.

The record book would suggest the chances of Grylls doing that is much longer than Lincoln King’s $7.50 fixed odds price.

In the last six decades only three horses have won the cups double, none in the last 30 years, and only two of those did it in the same season.

Triple Wellington Cup winner Castletown won both races in 1992, as did super stayer Il Tempo in 1970, with the only other dual winner being Secured Deposit who scored at Ellerslie in 1984 and Trentham a year later.

Grylls acknowledges that Lincoln King fits more into the grinding stayer mould - the type of horse suited to the big Trentham and Riccarton tracks where he has racked up his best 3200 metre results.

But the rugged Secured Deposit managed the feat and Grylls was really buoyed by how well Lincoln King performed at Ellerslie last week, over the shorter 2100 metres of the Nathans Memorial, when just photo-finished for pinch-hitting Joe Kamaruddin.

“He raced handier than he normally does and I’ll want to see him do the same thing on Sunday from eight, which is a perfect gate for him.

“The key is getting him up closer and rolling. I’ll want to be no worse then midfield, and one off, so I can make my move when I want to, rather than getting held up on the fence.”

Grylls knows Lincoln King is more dour than many of his rivals, like race favourite Concert Hall, so says he will need to be winding up before the 400 metre mark.

“We really need a genuine tempo, not a walk, and then I know he’ll switch off and have a big finish on him.

“He was beautiful like that when I rode him for the first time in the Wellington Cup. We got a spot and he relaxed.”

Lincoln King staves off stablemate Starrybeel to win the Wellington Cup. PHOTO: Peter Rubery/Race Images.When asked what his confidence level was like for Sunday, Grylls replied: “I’d have to say with the two mile record he has, it’s very high after last week’s run, over the shorter trip.”

In three attempts at 3200 metres, Lincoln King beat unlucky stablemate Starrybeel in the Wellington Cup in January, finished a half head second behind Dragon Storm in the 2020 New Zealand Cup and ran ninth in last year’s Auckand Cup when he was repeatedly hampered in the running and hopelessly placed last 700 metres from home.

He has proven he can win on the undulating Ellerslie course, winning two of his seven starts there over 2100 metres.

Grylls, 32, has been in terrific form this season and lies second on the premiership with 69 wins, five behind Michael McNab after a recent suspension.

He is well on target to become the most successful Grylls rider, in his 17th season on the track he has notched 970 wins. Dad Garry retired at the age of 44 after 28 years with 1252 winners, and grandad John rode more than 700 winners.

“We race a lot more now so it’s easier to ride more winners and the jockey ranks aren’t as strong as they used to be.

“But getting on nice horses has helped too - I’m rapt with the support I’m getting this season, and winning has a snowball effect.”