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Blackcaps LIVE: Sport Nation ExtraTulsa King to resume at New Plymouth
Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk • July 16th, 2026 4:59 pm
Group Three performer Tulsa King will resume at New Plymouth on Saturday | Photo: Race Images
Tulsa King, the little horse with a cult following, is back racing this weekend, but it won’t be in the race trainer Aaron Bidlake had originally intended.
Bidlake had earmarked the Listed Agfirst Engineering Opunake Cup (1400m) at New Plymouth on Saturday as the rising four-year-old’s first assignment of his new campaign, but the Taranaki feature attracted a bevy of nominations and Tulsa King found himself sixth on the ballot.
While his weekend stakes ambitions look to be scuppered, all is not lost, with the Hasting’s gelding still set to trek to the opposite side of the North Island to take his place in the Sandfords Rural Carriers (1200m), where he will be ridden Elen Nicholas from barrier one.
“I am a little bit gutted that we haven’t made the Opunake Cup field, the last few years there have only been 11 in it and this year they get a full field,” Bidlake said. “It is a bit disheartening because it has been the plan the whole way through, but he is going well so we are happy to be in the race we are in.”
Tulsa King proved to be the underdog story of this year’s Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m), having been purchased off gavelhouse.com for $1,500, and he went on to finished runner-up in the Gr.3 Wellington Stakes (1600m) and Listed Gingernuts Salver (2100m) prior to the Champion’s Day Classic.
While he finished 10th in the Derby, Bidlake was proud of his performance.
“I was really happy (with his Derby performance),” Bidlake said. “He actually got quite a bad squeeze just on the point of the turn as he was starting to roll into it. He wasn’t going to run in the first three, but I think he would have finished a lot closer than he did. I was happy enough, he tried hard, and that is all you can ask.”
Bidlake said Tulsa King has thrived over his spell, and he is looking forward to tackling some home assignments over the Hawke’s Bay Spring Carnival before heading south to Riccarton.
“He is only a little horse but he put on 24 kilos in the time he had out,” Bidlake said. “I brought him back in a week or so earlier than I had planned because he was starting to do a bit too well and was getting a bit dangerous in the paddock to feed, so we got him in and I couldn’t be any happier with him.
“We will just get through Saturday and probably save him for the Carnival here. There are races on all three days for him, but the main goal will be the Spring Classic (Listed, 2000m, at Riccarton on October 24). It is the logical go, 2000m is going to be his pet distance I think, so we will aim for that and hopefully we get there.”
Tulsa King will be joined on the float trip to New Plymouth by stable newcomer Sicarius, who will have his second start for Bidlake in the KTEC Engineering (1100m).
“He is a horse we got second or third-hand off gavelhouse,” Bidlake said. “He is a Savabeel and he is a lovely horse, he has just had a couple of niggly issues that we are working through. We are still learning about him and he will improve out of Saturday.”
