Yarraman Park bred, sold and co-owned I Am Invincible gelding King of Sparta arrived at Randwick on Saturday with residual fitness in his favour after winning the $1million Magic Millions Snippets (1200m) last month and he duly took the prize in the Group II ATC Expressway Stakes (1200m).
Trained by Peter and Paul Snowden and ridden by James McDonald, King Of Sparta settled back off a hot pace set by tearaway leader Malkovich and was able to close off hard late to win by half a length from Coal Crusher with Malkovich holding on for third.
“He’s in great form and we’ve really got a good handle on him now and with him it’s less is more,” said Paul Snowden, who will now be looking to plot a course to the rich $5million Quokka(1200m) at Ascot on April 20.
“It’s a juggling act as to how to prepare him and get him over there in as good an order as we can. We’ll make that call in the next week and it may be just a trial. It’s exciting for the ownership group and the horse to be racing for that sort of money.”
A $700,000 yearling purchase for China Horse Club, Newgate Farm and Starlight Racing from Yarraman Park at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, King of Sparta was gelded after just four runs and his overall record is now eight wins and seven placings from 28 starts with prizemoney topping $3.3million.
After being gelded he had a change of ownership and King Of Sparta is now raced by a syndicate headed by Yarraman Park and is the best of four winners to date for Group III winning Holy Roman Emperor (IRE) mare Octavia, who is back in foal again to I Am Invincible.
