KOOLMAN

Warwick Farm trainer, Oliver Koolman, plans to step Returnoftheking up in distance straight away following his gutsy win in the Grand Hotel-McNamee Constructions Class Two (1600m) at Wyong today.
“I think we will see the best of him at 2000 meters or even further and I will step him up in distance at his next start,” Koolman said.
“I just have the find the right race for him.”
The parade yard was awash with cheering owners after the win.
“The horse has about 20 owners so add partners and he is a pretty popular horse,” Koolman said.
“They have had a lot of fun with him, but he should have won more races by now.
“He has had a lot of bad luck with poor barriers and things not going his way in races.”
Bad luck appeared to have come his way again with Craig Agnew, who picked up the ride at the last minute after Brent Stanley could not make the weight, trapped three and four deep for much of the journey.
However Agnew allowed the four year old to edge forward gradually and was poised to pounce on the leaders at the top of the straight.
He gradually wore down the leaders to win by one and a quarter lengths from High Horse (Grant Buckley) with Liquidity (Kanichiro Fujii) a further one and a quarter lengths away third.

By Grahame Timbrell