Unlucky Lincoln King earns tilt at rich Grand National after fast-closing placing at Sandown

Trainer Kathyrn Durden will set Lincoln King for the A$350,000 Grand National Hurdle in August after his unlucky third in Sunday’s Australian Hurdle at Sandown.

Lincoln King’s barnstorming late finish was a feature of the A$125,000 feature, Durden believing he should have run second and could have given the winner Port Guillaume a run for his money with a little more luck.

Last 800 metres from home, Lincoln King exploded under Arron Lynch in the run home, failing by only a nose to grab second from fellow Kiwi Leaderboard, and making huge inroads into the winner’s 3.3 length winning margin at the line.

“He could have been a lot closer if he’d begun better,” Durden said.

Lincoln King tails the field 800 metres from home.“The plan was to try to ride him in the first four but he was a little bit slow away and Arron didn’t want to dig him up in case he got pulling.

“He jumped the first three really well but when he got a couple of lengths off the field he lost a bit of concentration and got a bit sticky with a few of his jumps.

“He can lose concentration on his own. He doodles along and gets lazy. He gets more competitive when he’s jumping in amongst them.”

Durden said while disappointed that things went “pear-shaped” early when the horse got into a bad position, Lincoln King ran a fantastic race.

“I was rapt with the horse. He picked up and jumped well under pressure and he was really running on.”

He flies the last fence but still has a lot of ground to make up.The way Lincoln King flew the last hurdle and hit the line at the end of 3900 metres gave Durden plenty of confidence that he can be a major player over an extra 300 metres in the National on August 4.

“I’ll go down that path. How I get there I don’t know yet.

“He just needs to practise his jumping and that will come with race experience. He’d only had three hurdle starts before yesterday.”

Despite his newness, Lincoln King firmed considerably in the betting, closing the equal third favourite, Durden figuring punters might have been influenced by Affluential’s fifth win on end in the previous race.

Kathryn Durden … “the horse was fantastic.”“He possibly should have beaten Affluential (in the Champion Novice Hurdle at Warrnambool). He was taken back through the field by a riderless horse.

“He hasn’t had a lot of luck in his last two starts. Hopefully luck goes our way next time.”

Lincoln King earned A$11,250 for his placing, taking his earnings to A$73,910 in 11 starts since joining the Durden team in Geelong.

The Shocking nine-year-old’s career record now reads seven wins and 10 placings from 49 starts for A$428,769 in stakes.