Chris Symons has found the secret for the wayward Kaiser Sun as the pair attempt to collect a hat trick of wins down the Flemington straight in the Listed $120,000 Kensington Stakes (1000m) on Saturday.
Chris Symons has found the secret how to ride Kaiser Sun. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Symons is keen to maintain his perfect record on Kaiser Sun since taking over the reins on the four year old this preparation with the pair forming a winning bond together with two wins over the 1000m at Flemington on December 14 and January 1.
Kaiser Sun has a few tricks up his sleeves and has proved a handful to ride in early morning trackwork as well as on race day but Symons has worked hard to find the secret to bring out the best in the gelding.
“He’s not an easy horse to ride track work I believe, on race day he is quite highly strung and boisterous. He’s a bit of a handful but I seem to have a bit of a bond with him at the moment,” Symons told the Sportsman.
“You have to keep your wits about you when you are on him.”
The training partnership of Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra have been restricted to giving Kaiser Sun only six race starts because of leg problems and this is also reflected on his form sheet with thirty-one weeks between his win at Bendigo on May 3 last year and his first up win at Flemington on December 14.
Kaiser Sun’s fitness work is done mainly in the pool and the hard tracks in Melbourne at the moment because of the extreme hot weather could go against him tomorrow.
“It’s probably hard for him on these firmer tracks as well. Mat has been spacing his runs and that’s helping him and obviously he loves the straight and he’s going to be hard to beat,” Symons said.
One of Symons’ secret is to try keep Kaiser Sun in his comfort zone and has learned not to bustle him in a race.
“He’s not one that you can bustle and put him out of his comfort zone by trying to ride too quiet or too close,” Symons said.
At his first run back Symons was able to lead on him, but second up Kaiser Sun sat just off the pace and that worked as well.
“First up he got pretty worked up behind the barriers, he wasn’t copping all that well, and to come out and do it at both ends was a big effort,” Symons said.
“Being able to switch off last start was a massive benefit and I think you’ll find he’ll switch off even better.”
Kaiser Sun heads the market order for the Kensington Stakes on the strength of his two wins this preparation and has been marked the at $3.10 favourite ahead of the Tony McEvoy trained Pocket Rockets at $5 with top weight First Command and Don’t Get Excited sharing the third line of betting at $6.
