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Lachlan King to make city debut at Sandown

Apprentice Lachlan King will take the next step in his career when he makes his city debut at Sandown with five rides.

The 19-year-old is the son of retired champion jockey Steven King whose major wins included the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups double on Let’s Elope in 1991 and the 2003 Cox Plate on Fields Of Omagh.

King has already ridden 78 winners in country Victoria and NSW and has continued to hone his skills before making the step to metropolitan racing.

His rides at Sandown on Wednesday include three for the powerful Lindsay Park stable.

His first ride will be aboard the Steve Cunningham-trained Makahu Boy in the Dream Thoroughbreds Handicap while Brent Stanley has booked the three-kilo claimer to ride Kaimu in the Clanbrooke Racing Handicap (1600m).

King won on Kaimu at Mornington two starts ago on January 1.

The apprentice said he was excited to be making his city debut.

“It was the plan to wait as long as I could and capitalise on the opportunities I had in the country and try to reduce my claim in the country as much as I could,” King said.

“I was just trying to iron out some of the little mistakes I was making and I think I’m now pretty much ready to start riding in the metropolitan area.

“It’s also great that the horses I’m riding on Wednesday happen to be for trainers who have been big supporters of mine.”

The apprentice has ridden winners for all three stables.

King is indentured to Gerald Egan at Mansfield whose former apprentices include Luke Nolen, Nick Hall and Jye McNeil.

He said he had also been going to Lindsay Park’s Euroa property about once a week in the past six months to ride work.

He rode trackwork at Caulfield for the first time last Tuesday.

“Obviously we were planning to ride in town later this month so we thought it would be a good idea to head to town every now and then to ride some work and see more of the metro trainers,” King said.

King made his race riding debut in November 2016.

He notched 45 winners in his first season while he has 33 this season, 29 in Victoria and four on country tracks in NSW.

Last year he also represented Australia in an apprentice jockeys race at Chantilly in France.

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