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📻 IMPORTANT AUCKLAND UPDATE 📻
Diminutive Derby hope standing tall for Bidlake
Paul Vettise, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk • January 12th, 2026 2:30 pm
Gr.1 Trackside New Zealand Derby (2400m) hopeful Tulsa King. Photo: Race Images
Aaron Bidlake has never given Tulsa King’s lack of size a second thought, with experience teaching him good things can come in small packages.
The Hastings-based horseman was thrilled with his flyweight charge’s run for second in the Listed Gingernuts Salver (2100m) at Ellerslie on Sunday to keep the Classic dream alive with the son of Staphanos.
Tulsa King had collected a win and a runner-up finish in the Gr.3 Wellington Stakes (1400m) from his previous six starts for Bidlake and is firmly on target for a crack at the Gr.1 Trackside New Zealand Derby (2400m) in March.
“He had three trials and a couple of runs for Barry Donoghue and he trialled up okay but didn’t set the world on fire and only managed to beat one horse home in his first two starts,” Bidlake said.
“They put him on Gavelhouse and we were lucky enough to get him for only $1,500, I guess being so small put a lot of people off.
“He really is a tiny horse, but I’m not worried about small horses. I won the Grand National (5600m) with Eric The Viking and he was pretty small.”
Eric The Viking claimed the National in 2014 off the back of success in the Koral Steeplechase (4250m) and also won the Wellington Steeplechase (5500m).
“We’re having a fair old ride with a very cheap horse now and Barry Donoghue was the first one to come up to me on Sunday and congratulate us for running second, so that was nice,” Bidlake said.
“He went super and the ride from Sam Collett was fantastic, they got held up a bit in the straight but for a horse she’d never sat on before she gave him such a good ride along the fence.
“He came through it very well and we came home through the night back to Hastings, and he was bouncing in the paddock this (Monday) morning.”
Tulsa King is a family horse, with Bidlake and partner Michelle Young sharing in the ownership with his uncle and aunt Barry and Teresa.
“Mum and Dad (Karen and Graeme) also have a share in him as part of the Grassroots Syndicate and we travel all our own horses and Michelle does all the driving so it’s very much a team effort,” he said.
Tulsa King will make one more appearance before the Derby in an open handicap won by Kevin Myers’ C’est La Guerre on his way to Classic glory in 2008.
“We will go a little bit different because of the travel, so he’ll go to the Wairoa Cup (2100m) at Waipukurau,” Bidlake said.
“He’s only 400kg, I don’t want to give him another trip north at this time of the year with the heat, we’ll stick close to home and then it’s on to the Derby.
“In his previous races, he has got back and gone to sleep and we’ve thought all along he was a staying type of horse and the pedigree suggests that, the further he goes the better he’ll be.”
The Chequers Stud-bred gelding is out of the Encosta De Lago mare Lilies who is a half-sister to Soriano, dual Group One winner of the Zabeel Classic (2000m) and Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m), and the family of Wexford Stables’ 2021 Derby winner Rocket Spade.
