Newcastle trainer Kris Lees can’t remember life without Max Presnell and Ken Callander, so it makes the aptly-named Flag Of Honour his most important runner at Randwick on Saturday.
The three-year-old son of American Pharoah lines up in the Callander-Presnell against Caulfield Guineas winner Golden Mile with a lot of sentiment behind him.
Kris Lees would love to take out the Callander-Presnell with Flag Of Honour. Credit:Getty
“I learnt to read, reading Kenny and Max in the papers, and they have been around as long as I can remember,” Lees said. “For them to have a race named in their honour is magnificent, and it would be very special to win it because they have been great friends of my family.
“They are not just writers but great men. I remember them being around my father [Max], so I grew up knowing who they were and really respecting them.
“It’s great to have a runner in their race, and it would be emotional to win it because Ken and Max have meant so much to my family, but I think the favourite [Golden Mile] will be hard to beat.”
Flag Of Honour burst onto the scene winning his first two starts before stepping up to the mile and running fourths in the Ming Dynasty Stakes, where he was four lengths from Golden Mile, and the Dulcify Stakes.
Lees believes Flag Of Honour has the potential to mix it at the top level, but says it might only come with a bit of maturity next year.
“It might be coming a bit quick for him in the spring, I think with another six months he is going to get to that top level,” Lees said.
“These races are there for him now and they will harden him up, but as we have seen he is just a couple of lengths off the better ones now.
“He is there to run a good race, and we have put the blinkers on him, just to focus him a bit more on Saturday.
“It is hard to turn down the chance to run for $1 million, and I don’t he is not far off the favourite.”
Later in the afternoon, Lees is hoping for a testing track for mudlark Never Talk in The Invitation.
The No Nay Never mare was the best late from a long way back in the field on a bottomless Randwick track in The Nivison last start, when runner-up to Sky Command.
“The wetter the track, the better for her, but I wish she had drawn better,” Lees said. “I would have liked to put her into the race a bit more, but from the outside gate [of 14] we probably have to go back and give them a start.
“She is racing really well and she will be finishing it off, but it is always tough to give good horses a start.”
