Regal Lion ready to roar at Mornington races

Regal Lion is ready to make his stable debut for Gavin Bedggood this weekend, with a fresh approach in gear and training methods aimed at unlocking the gelding’s potential.

The former Annabel and Rob Archibald-trained runner hasn’t raced since finishing toward the back in the Listed Canberra Cup in March, but showed enough in a recent trial to earn a shot in Saturday’s Enchanted Adventure Handicap (2000m) at Mornington.

After running second in a 1500m trial at Cranbourne, Bedggood, with input from jockey Beau Mertens, opted to replace blinkers with visors for the weekend assignment, hoping the change will sharpen Regal Lion’s focus in the run.

“He arrived to me in good order,” Bedggood said.

“He’s a sound horse and we gave him a trial at Caulfield last Thursday.

“He hasn’t been a winner for a long time, so I wanted to see if we could give him a bit of a victory.

“He went around them pretty easily and he looked like he was going to put them away, but he had a bit of a wait.

“Watching on and then listening to Beau’s feedback, we’ll replace blinkers with visors and hopefully that can be the trick with him.”

Bedggood also noted the gelding’s new training regime, including cross-training techniques such as jumping, as a way to mentally and physically refresh him.

“We’ve been doing a bit of jumping with him,” he said.

“He arrived a very fit horse, so we haven’t had to do much with him in between times, it’s more so just keeping him happy.

“Our environment at Cranbourne is we have yards, we’ve got the sandhills, and that seems to have worked well for him, so I would like to think he would get the chance to run well and the best of him would see him competitive for sure.”