{"id":212077,"date":"2025-06-25T03:16:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T03:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212077\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T03:16:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T03:16:20","slug":"ex-aidan-obrien-star-adelaide-river-to-make-winter-cameo-at-rosehill-before-spring-carnival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212077\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Aidan O’Brien star Adelaide River to make winter cameo at Rosehill before spring carnival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trainer Kris Lees<\/a> is taking a one-and-done approach with classy import Adelaide River<\/a> this winter as he looks to use Saturday’s Listed $200,000 W J McKell Cup (2000m)<\/a> at Rosehill Gardens as a launching pad to the spring.<\/p>\n

Adelaide River, a former Aidan O’Brien-trained galloper that’s raced by Melbourne Cup-winning owner Lloyd Williams, was forced to miss Sydney’s autumn carnival due to bone bruising.<\/p>\n

\u2022 PUNT LIKE A PRO<\/a>: Become a Racenet iQ member<\/a> and get expert tips \u2013 with fully transparent return on investment statistics \u2013 from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips<\/a> section. SUBSCRIBE NOW<\/a>!<\/b><\/p>\n

The 2023 Irish Derby runner-up came into Lees’ yard last year and has so far had five starts for the stable without a win.<\/p>\n

But Adelaide River showed a glimpse of his talent at his last start in October when finishing fourth in behind Deny Knowledge in the Group 1 Might And Power Stakes (2000m).<\/a><\/p>\n

Lees is hoping the son of Australia can measure up at an elite level again this spring ahead of his highly-anticipated return this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2018Big boy now’: Unbeaten youngster targets return early in new season<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

“We will only give him this one run and then back off him until the spring,” Lees said.<\/p>\n

“He has had a long time off and seems to be coming up well.<\/p>\n

“He was taking a little bit to acclimatise with a bit of bone bruising but it’s settle down and he seems to have responded well.”<\/p>\n

Adelaide River has been well-prepared for his first-up assignment with a pair of trials victories in the lead-up, including a 6\u00bd-length success at Wyong over 1200m on June 16.<\/p>\n

But Lees is wary of tackling a 2000m event fresh from a break.<\/p>\n

“In an ideal world, if there was a mile race on he would have been in it but he is a mile-and-a-quarter, mile-and-a-half horse,” Lees said.<\/p>\n

“He has trialled nicely.<\/p>\n

“It looks to be a nice race for him.”<\/p>\n

\"Sydney<\/p>\n

Loch Eagle will stretch out to 2000m in the Listed McKell Cup. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u2022 Gollan marching towards another training milestone<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Lees is prepared to give in-form galloper Loch Eagle<\/a> another chance over 2000m following his strong second-up victory over the Royal Randwick mile last time.<\/p>\n

The son of Lonhro has only raced once previously over more than 1800m when he finished near the rear over 2200m at Magic Millions on the Gold Coast. <\/p>\n

“Loch Eagle won at 1800m quite well last preparation but when he got to the Sunshine Coast he had had enough,” Lees said.<\/p>\n

“He is going well so we thought we’d give him a try in this kind of race.”<\/p>\n

Apprentice Ben Osmond<\/a> will pilot Loch Eagle while Jay Ford<\/a> is aboard Adelaide River.<\/p>\n

Lees is hunting his second McKell Cup after winning the race with Frankely Awesome in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trainer Kris Lees is taking a one-and-done approach with classy import Adelaide River this winter as he looks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-212077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114741837034835466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}