Lincoln King to kick off New Zealand Cup tilt with some mid-winter fun at Ruakaka beach

Lincoln King will start his New Zealand Cup campaign with a couple of weeks at the beach.

The horse will go north from Stephen Marsh’s Cambridge stable to Ruakaka tomorrow where he will be looked after by local trainer Michelle Bradley before and after he races there on Saturday.

Michelle Bradley will look after Lincoln King at Ruakaka.Marsh is sending a couple of his older campaigners to Donna Logan’s former stable foreman to help envigorate them ahead of busy campaigns.

“It’s just something different for the older horses to keep their mind in the game,” says Marsh. “They can cruise along the beach and walk up the sand dunes.”

Marsh has chosen the Ruakaka 1400 metre sprint as Lincoln King’s campaign opener, knowing he has no chance of winning but keen not to knock him around first-up on a boggy winter track.

“We’ve had a lot of rain down here and I don’t want to kick him off on a heavy 20 track.

“The trip away will help tighten him up and hopefully will be a step en route to another tilt at the New Zealand Cup.”

Lincoln King was beaten by the barest of margins in the cup last year by Dragon Storm, ironically trained by Logan’s former training partner Chris Gibbs.

It was the highlight of his first serious campaign which netted $74,425 for Lincoln Farms owners John and Lynne Street, Wellfield Holdings’ Bill Gleeson, Ian Middleton and Peter Gillespie.

Lincoln King just fails to catch Dragon Storm in last November’s New Zealand Cup at Riccarton. PHOTO: Ajay Berry.Marsh is delighted with how Lincoln King is coming up in his new preparation.

“I’m really happy with him, his work is good, and he’s come through his last trial really well.”

Though last of five over 1300 metres on the Cambridge synthetic track, Marsh says Lincoln King was only there for a quiet run under Crystal Lindsay.

“The old boy travelled a bit of all right and even though he ran last of five, he got going again after the line.

“He certainly won’t be winning over 1400 metres in a fresh state but the race will bring him on, then we’ll get him up to a mile and beyond.”

Lincoln King, a seven-year-old who has raced only 22 times, ran respectable ninths in both the Avondale and Auckland Cups earlier in the year, and last appeared on March 20 when fifth in the St Leger at Trentham.