3 minute read

He may not quite reach the century like his ‘uncle’ did, but Joe Pride is confident we’ll be seeing his tough stayer Stockman sticking around for some time to come.

The seven-year-old recently notched his half-century and already has over $1.7 million in the bank for his connections and he'll be out to add to the tally in Tuesday's Group 3 $250,000 Schweppes Summer Cup (2000m) at Randwick.

Joe Pride sees a little of former stalwart Destiny's Kiss, whose mother is a half-sister to Stockman and who had 102 starts for 19 wins including 10 at Listed level, in the gelding.

Stockman, $9 with TAB on Monday, has a Group 3 win among his four stakes successes and Pride is confident he'll have every chance to add to that over the next few years.

"In human terms he's Destiny's Kiss's uncle and he's very similar to him,'' Pride said.

"Destiny's raced on over 100 starts, this horse has had 50 now and I could see him easily clocking up 70 or 80 starts. There's another couple of seasons left in him yet."

Destiny's Kiss had three attempts at the Summer Cup, his best effort a third in 2013. Tuesday will be Stockman's second tilt at the race having run fourth as a $4.40 chance in 2021 on a good track.

Key to Stockman's Summer Cup hopes is the track condition as Pride is well aware of his record on good ground – that lone win in his stats from 24 starts on good ground was his maiden win back in 2020.

He appreciated a soft surface when scoring in the Listed Christmas Cup (2400m) and backs up after finishing 3.3 lengths from Grebeni under 62kg when back to a mile at Randwick on December 16.

"For a horse coming back from 2400m I thought it was a pretty sharp run,'' Pride said.

"The 2000m is getting back to his right trip.

"In this grade he could be competitive at 2000m, I'd be hoping for a soft track for him because he's so much better when he gets the toe into the ground.

"He's accumulated a terrible record on dry tracks, he's only won one race and that's a Goulburn maiden. He doesn't get beaten out of sight but he just can't sprint."

The Warwick Farm trainer is keen to get Accredited's toe into the ground after he felt the promising four-year-old didn't appreciate a quick surface in his closing fifth behind Boston Rocks.

He ran the third fastest last 600m of 33.65 (Punter's Intelligence) in that 1100m race second-up.

"Rory (Hutchings) knows the horse pretty well and he said he didn't like the really firm track last Saturday,'' he said.

"They can run home in 33 but it doesn't mean they like doing it. If he gets a bit of sting out I'd love to run him at 1200m."

Accredited has drawn the outside alley in the Gordon's Pink Gin Handicap (1200m) but a soft track could well offset that hurdle.

Pride said he had expectations going into the gelding's last start run but is confident we'll see a different horse if he gets more favourable conditions.

"I thought he'd run a bit better than he did the other day, he still ran fourth and didn't run badly but I've got in my mind he's a pretty progressive horse and I was surprised he missed the place,'' he said.

"When you watch the replay you can see he wasn't totally comfortable on the firm deck."