Joe Pride pair hit the road for Flemington

Sydney trainer Joe Pride is banking on a trip to Melbourne being beneficial for the future of The Black Cloud.

Along with stablemate King Of The Castle, The Black Cloud is set to contest the VRC Country Race Day Sprint (1100m) at Flemington on Saturday while King Of The Castle will line up in The David Bourke (1600m).

Pride is a believer in travelling his horses as a way of getting them to mature.

In the case of The Black Cloud, it will give the filly the chance to contest a race on a more favourable surface with the Flemington track rated a Soft 5 at acceptance time on Wednesday.

The Black Cloud has won three of her five starts to date, finishing second on the other two occasions, and Pride believes the filly was brought undone on the heavy ground at her last start at Randwick on June 8.

“She was very brave last start,” Pride said.

“She probably wasn’t that well suited on the heavy track, but she will get a better surface down there and she’ll be hard to beat.

“I like travelling promising horses because if they’re going to be good horses, they need to do a bit of travelling, and doing it at a relatively early stage of their career is never a bad thing.

“I think it can mature them as well.

“It’s pretty easy too, 10 hours on a float.”

Jay Ford, who was the toast of Royal Ascot back in 2006 after partnering with Takeover Target to win the King Stand Stakes, will travel to Melbourne on Saturday to continue his association with The Black Cloud, having ridden the filly in all five starts to date.

King Of The Castle, who was also nominated in the Listed Civic Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday, will be ridden by Blake Shinn and has drawn barrier six.

Pride has Excelladus and Estadio Mestella running in the Civic Stakes, adding the 1600m trip at Flemington should be ideal for King Of The Castle.

“Plus, it will help me separate them and it should be a better track down there for him,” Pride said.