Ideal Kingdom might go one better

Barry Lichter writes for Lincoln Farms that little Ideal Kingdom (American Ideal) gets top billing at Cambridge on Thursday night (Jul. 21) after nearly taking a big harness racing scalp at Auckland at his last start.

The chunky colt had Lincoln Farms and some its most loyal partners really yelling as he set sail for home with a good break on white hot favourite Gandalf at Alexandra Park last Friday night.

And while the highly touted Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan-trained two-year-old grabbed him right on the post, it was still a run that trainer Ray Green says augurs well for the future.

“Based on that run you’d have to think he’ll be favourite on Thursday night,” Green said. “They’re saying Gandalf could be better than Merlin so on paper he looks our best shot of the night.”

Merlin took early season two-year-old honours for the Purdon-Phelan stable when he was unbeaten in four starts, climaxed by the Young Guns Final in March.

Green says while he hadn’t expected Ideal Kingdom to go so close in only his fifth start he’s obviously on the improve.

“James (Stormont) said if he’d relaxed a bit more he would just about have won it too. He got a bit crabby, pulling down the back straight, and really wanted to go.

“He should be hard to beat this week. He’s a genuine horse who does nothing wrong – he’s always been tradesmanlike.”

To read the full story, click here.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Barry Lichter, reprinted with permission from Lincoln Farms