Chris Waller’s Chalk Stream will become the first horse to don the Royal silks in a group 1 since Queen Elizabeth II’s death at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
Chalk Stream was sent to Waller last year by Her Majesty, but will race under the banner of King Charles III for the first time in The Metropolitan, where he will be an outsider.
Chalk Stream will look for a Royal success in the Metropolitan at Randwick on Saturday.Credit:Getty
Waller will have favourite Durston in Sydney’s biggest staying race of the spring, but the focus will be on Chalk Stream.
“There is a responsibility to ensure the tradition of respect is continued,” Waller said. “We want him to run well, and he will.
“I don’t think Her Majesty was worried, first and foremost, about winning races. For her, participating was important, as was the horse coming home safely. The King would know that better than me.”
The change in ownership took place on Wednesday, but silks won’t change from the regal purple jacket with gold braid, red sleeves and a black velvet cap with a gold fringe.
They will be first carried for the King by Educator at Salisbury on Thursday, but it is significant the first major appearance will be in Australia.
The King has taken over the significant bloodstock portfolio of his late mother and, as the monarch, the horses will race in the distinctive royal silks, rather than his colours of red with blue sleeves and a navy cap, which a handful of horses graced the turf in for him as the Prince Of Wales.
Waller has prepared Chalk Stream in a European fashion with a month between its last outing, a fourth in the City Tattersalls Cup, and Saturday. He thought long and hard about where the Sea The Stars five-year-old would step out next, in concert with the late queen’s bloodstock manager.
“John Warren actually asked me to try and find an easy race and give the horse and the new owner a good experience,” Waller said. “As it has worked out, it was hard to find that perfect easy race.
“I said to Mr Warren do you mind if we run him in the Metropolitan because we have got a good draw and Kathy [O’Hara] has ridden the horse before. He was happy to go with that.”
The Australian Turf Club is one of only two racecourses in the world that carries the royal association, and the club is honoured to have the royal colours appear at its major traditional spring meeting.
“We are thrilled the famous royal silks, now under the ownership of the king, will have their first appearance in a group 1 race, most appropriately, at Royal Randwick,” Australian Turf Club chief executive Jamie Barkley said.
“It was an enormous honour to have the Queen’s horses to race in Sydney, and we look forward to King Charles III continuing this great association with our racing.”
Waller admits it would be a thrill for Chalk Stream to win on Saturday, but his main hope is for the horse to be competitive.
“We just want to make sure the horse shows his best in Australia,” he said. “We have just kept things very simple and we’ll let the horse do the talking on the track and hopefully the King will be happy.”
