Perhaps recovering from a swift Hong Kong venture or simply losing his racing spark, Royal Patronage disappointed in the spring carnival.
For the autumn comeback, co-trainer Adrian Bott thought revamping the seven-year-old stallion’s program could restore his edge, and he turned to the perfect partner – his wife Jess, a proficient horse specialist.
“My wife has done a lot of work with him. A lot of flat work and dressage work,” Bott said.
“She is very good at that side of things and working with them.
We’ve tried as much as we can to refresh his training and mindset and his approach to it all and he seems back having confidence in himself.
So I can’t take credit.”
Retaining stallion status, Royal Patronage joined Western Australia’s Darling View Thoroughbreds recently, a farm with a niche collection headed by Playing God.
His impending career shift means Saturday’s All Aged Stakes (1400m) at Randwick could be his curtain call, and Bott expects a powerful performance if so.
“His biggest runs in Australian have been first-up,” he said.
“Sometimes it is hard to go against that depth of field first-up, against some that are deep into their campaigns and have had the runs and are fitter.
But you fall back and look at his record, and that’s when he has performed really well and in that distance range as well. He can be effective.”
He holds a record of three first-up successes in six, peaking with Group 1 glory in last year’s Canterbury Stakes (1300m).
From barrier six in the All Aged, Tim Clark takes the mount.
Discover racing betting markets at top sports betting platforms for the All Aged Stakes.