Longreach Bay Photo by Pacepix
Peter Kings love of horses spans a lifetime and his interest in harness racing all began back in the UK, racing on the grass, not making a cent, but since his retirement in late 2024, its his main focus.
After getting involved in harness racing when he lived in the UK in the early 80’s, it was only natural that he continued when he made the move to Australia in 1987, working for Trevor Warwick for four-and-a-half-years before branching out on his own in the early 1990’s to train for himself here in the west.
“It was about 25 years of half doing horses, so I was very lucky to get the wins I did get during that time I was training, but now I have the time to put the hours into them and the success is actually happening.”
Longreach Bay has been a sensational horse for King and this season is no exception, with the now eight-year-old double westbred son of Renaissance Man racking up five wins and a runner-up placing from just nine starts, with King hopeful he can continue his good from into next weeks race at Gloucester Park, the Catch A Wave heat, with the final scheduled for Nullarbor Night, April 25.
“He’s certainly got his gate speed back, he lost that for a while but I think his confidence got knocked around with the injury and when he was back in the field he didn’t want to race and if he led, he was a different horse but now he seems to be doing both bits.”
King attributes a lot of his current success to the fact he has now retired from his day job and can finally work the horses how he would like to, instead of working them around his full-time job as an Area Planner at Alcoa.
“With Longreach, last November, I thought ‘stuff it’, I tipped him out for 10 days and had a good think about everything, brought him back in and completely changed everything including his feeding.
“I’ve gone back to riding him the way I was back when he won the Group 1 in his three-year-old campaign, so I ride him twice a week now and he’s just loving life.” King said.
Longreach Bay had a fantastic three-year-old campaign in which included taking out the 2020 Gr1 C&G Westbred Classic and the 3YO WestSired Final.
“We always thought he was going to be a real good horse, he was a bit of a rogue as a baby, and that’s why I started riding him, he would try to kick you out of the cart, so I thought I’d put a saddle on him and he settled him down a heap.
“And he started to look like he was going to potentially be as good as if not better than Cott Beach, and then he broke down.”
With 14 months in the paddock, it was a long road to recovery for Longreach Bay, but he hasn’t looked back, and all systems are go for the now seasoned racehorse.
Half-sister Cott Beach was a winner of 15 races from just 41 starts with stakes in excess of $275,000, with King purchasing her in utero when the dam Back In The Black was sold in foal to Advance Attack.
Cott Beach was retired in late 2019 and has three foals, two fillies by Ulitmate Machete and a colt by Lather Up USA in 2024 who sadly passed away in recent months.
King is hopeful she will go back in foal this upcoming breeding season, looking at either Always B Miki or Captain Crunch.
A horseman through and through, Kings background spans back to pony club days and equestrian pursuits, but his father was into gallopers and what may seem completely unbelievable to those who have met Peter King in person, his uncle was a jockey in the UK.
“There are some short people in my family.” He joked
