The grand aspirations of a Cups campaign for King Pedro have been significantly diminished, yet connections are hopeful of extracting some positive outcomes from the promising stayer’s current preparation over his next few outings.

Following a stellar victory in the Grafton Cup (2350m) during July, King Pedro was earmarked for a tilt at The Metropolitan. However, an unfortunate illness struck at an inopportune moment, derailing those plans.

He is now scheduled to resume racing in the Group 2 Hill Stakes (1900m) at Rosehill this Saturday. While still entered in the Melbourne Cup (3200m) nominations, co-trainer Tom Charlton has indicated that the race will likely come too soon for the horse.

“Realistically, the autumn is probably going to be his time,” Charlton said. “We left him in (the Melbourne Cup), but it was just in case. Unfortunately, he was due to follow a ‘Metrop’ path, but he got sick at the wrong time. This is short of his best and a bit off-plan, but it’s the only race to get him going in.”

While the Metropolitan dream has been torpedoed, King Pedro does possess residual fitness from his winter racing and has been working well in the stable since his return.

Lindermann, the defending champion of the Hill Stakes, is the current $1.90 favourite and shapes as the horse to beat. Despite this, Charlton anticipates King Pedro, a $15 chance, will be competitive.

“I’ll be interested to see how he runs,” he commented. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see him run a good race. If the best Lindermann comes he’s obviously pretty effective and hard to beat. This weekend will tell us a lot.”

Should King Pedro perform impressively, a potential target race could be the Rosehill Gold Cup (2000m) at Randwick on October 31.

Stablemates Starzintheireyes and Mister Rizz were nominated for the Hill Stakes but did not accept. Both runners are entered for the Kia Ora Bloodlines To Headlines Handicap (2000m) on the undercard.

Charlton mentioned that Mister Rizz is slated to start from barrier three, while a decision is still being made regarding Starzintheireyes, who could either race from the outside gate 13 or be aimed at the Group 3 Coongy Handicap (2000m) at Caulfield on Wednesday.

“‘Starz’ could have the option of the Coongy in Melbourne, but we’ll just have a think,” Charlton concluded. You can find competitive racing odds at Australian betting sites for this weekend’s action.