King Of Hastings could press spring claims

Caulfield runner King Of Hastings can add to trainer Anthony Freedman’s up-and-coming 3yos.

The Anthony Freedman stable already has a number of rising three-year-olds being aimed at spring racing and King Of Hastings gets the chance to put forward his case for bigger targets when he runs at Caulfield.

King Of Hastings scored a comfortable victory in a Cranbourne maiden on debut last month before finishing a close second to Can’t Be Done in his first city appearance at Sandown on June 15.

The stable’s two-year-olds have won a combined 16 races so far this season, highlighted by Blue Diamond Stakes-winning filly Lyre, dual stakes winning colt I Am Immortal and city winners Super Seth, Chenier and Meuse.

King Of Hastings is entered for his third start in Saturday’s Ladbrokes Odds Boost Handicap (1200m) for which the field of 13 includes unbeaten Phillip Stokes-trained filly Sizzlefly.

“He’s a promising horse,” assistant trainer Sam Freedman said.

“He’s drawn a sticky gate (11) so we’ll just have to have a good look at the race and see where we end up on a (speed) map.

“But he’s going into this race as well as he has gone into any of them and hopefully he can get another win on the board.

“He’s a solid horse. We’ll know more about him this week and it’s still winter racing, but he’s going to be a nice horse who will probably improve at three.”

King Of Hastings will be ridden by Melbourne’s premier jockey Craig Williams for the first time on Saturday and if he can take another step up he could get the chance at a spring campaign.

“Possibly,” Freedman said.

“He would want to go and win on Saturday and then we’d give him a short break.”

King Of Hastings was the $4.40 second favourite behind Sizzlefly ($2.20) on Thursday.

Sizzlefly won her first start in Adelaide by 8/1-4-lengths in January and then resumed from a spell with an impressive 2-1/4-length win at a Mornington metropolitan grade meeting earlier this month.