05 March 2019 | Paul Courts
ALTHOUGH he only arrived this season, King Of The Roses’ days in South Australian are becoming numbered.
Citing increasing handicaps as the reason, owner Merv Butterworth explained he is unsure how much longer King Of The Roses can remain competitive in the state.
Producing a track record performance at Globe Derby during the weekend, the trotter is likely to be inflicted with an increased handicap as a result of his win.
“He’s had to break the track record to win off 40 metres on Saturday night,” Butterworth said. “While it was a terrific run, he can’t be expected to that every time he goes around.
“If he goes back much further he will be handicapped out of the races.
“We’ll just have to see how he goes, but he will be at the crossroads soon and I will have to decide where he is better suited.”
Driven by Ken Rogers, King Of The Roses settled at the tail of the field, which was spread across 50 metres as Bold Law led.
Angled three-wide at the bell, King Of The Roses sustained a strong run to score by a metre-and-a-half from Gus Or Bust, which Bold Law seven metres away third.
“That was a huge effort to win off 40 metres,” trainer Les Harding said. “The leader did everything it could to give those coming from behind little chance of making up the ground.
“The Port Pirie Cup in a couple of weeks is where I will head with him next, but after that, I’m not really sure.
“I’ll have to have a look at the program and see what might be suitable.”
Rating 2:01.9, the son of Monarchy sliced seven-tenths of a second from Ronerail’s 2645-metre record set in January 2011.
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