He is the king of summer, but at the ripe old age of nine Destiny's Kiss is paying for his consistency after being handed 61 kilograms in his fourth Gosford Cup on Thursday.
Warwick Farm trainer Joe Pride has picked out the summer and winter off-seasons for Destiny's Kiss and made him a millionaire stayer with more than $700,000 of his stakes coming at this time of year.
Destiny's Kiss won a Gosford Cup in 2016 and was third in 2014 and 2017. It is always a race on his program.
"We know what type of horse he is, he is not quite up to that group level during the carnivals, so the summer has been his time," Pride said. "There are a good group of races for him around now, and you can strike a soft track, which he likes.
"We run him in the same races every year, and when he gets his chance with the right weight, he is very competitive.
"He has probably got too much weight to be in the leading chances on Thursday. The bookies usually get him about right and they have him a $12 chance at Gosford."
Remarkably 16 of Destiny's Kiss' wins have come at the odds of $5 or less with last year's Wyong Cup the only time he has caught punters off guard, starting at $8.50 on that day.
"The punters seem to know when he can win," Pride said. "The handicapper makes it tough for him because he is so high in the ratings."
The problem for Destiny's Kiss is that he picks up a race or so every preparation - he has won 17 times in his 78-start career - and because of that he finds his rating at a lifetime high of 107.
"When he won this race two years he was only rated 94," Pride said. "He is the second-highest rated horse in my stable behind Terravista, which is a group 1 winner, and it is clear he is not a group horse.
"Every time we have tried him at that higher level he has struggled. He is probably the most exposed horse form-wise in the state and it is clear he is probably around 104-105 horse.
"At that sort of rating he would have around 59.5 kilograms and really test these. He is in good form, but 61 kilograms might just pull him up as you saw last start [when third in the City Tatts Cup]."
Singing is the Gosford Cup favourite at $3.30 after winning his past two at Doomben.
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