With four wins from his six starts this campaign, Joe Pride appears to have another high-quality galloper sporting the Proven Thoroughbred silks as Shalaa 3yo King’s Secret carried 60.5kgs to win the Petaluma Handicap (1100m) on Saturday at Randwick.
Jumping from barrier 7 in the field of 9, jockey Andrew Adkins allowed King’s Secret to settle in fourth position behind the Gratz Vella trained Headwater gelding Vella’s Best who held the lead until the 300m mark.
When the business end of the race was reached, Adkin’s charged down the outside about King’s Secret to hit the lead with 200m to run, holding off the late charge of Bjorn Baker’s race favourite Stardeel (Dundeel) to win by the best part of a half-length margin.
In the process, King’s Secret, emulated stablemate and fellow Proven Thoroughbreds runner In Flight (Artie Schiller) who won the same race 12 months back, and in the process securing the BOBS NSW Horse of the Year prize.
As a half-brother to Group 1 winner and $12m earner Private Eye (Al Maher), himself another Proven Thoroughbred purchased and syndicated runner, the uncanny facet between In Flight and the half-brother’s is that all three were born and raised at Kerrie Tibbey’s Goodwood Farm – an exceptional achievement for a small farm.
Knowing that last year’s winner of this very race is now a multiple stakes winner and that his half-brother is a Group 1 winner – just how far can King’s Secret go?
"Joe and his team keep raising the bar and he keeps saying, 'how high?'" Adkins said.
"He's going obviously super this preparation. He is really coming to, he's maturing."
"I was a bit worried going to the gates. That was the calmest he has ever been. It's just him maturing, him switching on and learning to do all the right things and all the basics."
"He is really getting a hang of that winning style now."
From his six starts this campaign, the 3yo has only finished outside of the top two once, with connections working hard after that failure to get him back of track.
"Two back when he went amiss there at Rosehill I said, 'I don't know what's gone on with him' and Joe said, 'I had him too fresh'," Adkins said.
"He (Pride) took him back home and sorted him out. Gave him a bit of work and he came back and won. Kudos to Joe and his team, they've done a great job."
Orla Pearl was representing the stable as Pride was in Melbourne to watch In Flight win the Group 3 Monash Stakes.
"Andrew rode him brilliantly today. He knows him so well now. Before the race he said, 'we won't be riding the race, we'll be riding the horse' and that's exactly what he's done," Pearl said.
"And the horse, he is just so versatile, and he has proved that.
"It's impressive to see a mare throw horses like that again and again and to have the family in the stable. It's something special."
The son of Shalaa was secured by Jamie Walter’s Proven Thoroughbreds and trainer Joe Pride for $100,000 from the Inglis Easter yearling sale, and having earned connections over $360,000 to date, surely there is more to come.
King’s Secret is the fourth foal of Shamardal mare Confidential Queen, who Tibbey had purchased for just $13,000 from the Widden Stud draft at the 2015 Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale when in foal to Star Witness.
The current 2yo out of Confidential Queen is a full-sister to King’s Secret named Confidentiality who is also part of the Joe Pride stable and races for her breeders after she was passed in at the 2024 Inglis Easter yearling sale.
Confidential Queen produced a filly by Darley’s Champion Anamoe (Street Boss) last spring in his first season at stud and is currently in foal to the very same stallion.
Set to stand at Victoria’s Woodside Park Stud at a fee of $19,800 (inc. GST), the son of Invincible Spirit is the sire of 19 stakes winners highlighted locally by this season’s Group 1 MVRC AJ Moir Stakes winner.
