Renowned horse trainer Joseph Pride has a knack for transforming existing talent into stakes winners, and he’s currently working with the capable gelding Poison Chalice.

The six-year-old, a son of Savabeel, was previously under the care of Paul Preusker from Horsham. His most recent outing saw him finish tenth in the Listed Ballarat Cup over 2000 metres.

Although Poison Chalice has yet to secure a victory beyond benchmark level, he has consistently performed well in Group company. His best result was a second-place finish in the Group 3 Eclipse Stakes (1800m) during the Spring of 2024.

Pride aims to gain a clearer understanding of his new stable acquisition when Poison Chalice competes in the Listed Civic Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick this Saturday.

“Poison Chalice raced down in Melbourne, he’s a nice Savabeel horse,” Pride stated. “He’s going well, he trialled up, there’s improvement to come but he should run well.”

“He’s raced up over a mile to 2000 metres, we’ll kick him off at seven furlongs and see how he goes. Lovely horse, hasn’t changed ownership, they’ve got a really nice horse.”

Poison Chalice has completed two trials in preparation for this campaign, showing significant improvement in his most recent Warwick Farm workout. He led the pace and finished second over 791 metres, with Pride noting the horse has settled in smoothly to Sydney life.

“Getting them on the Sydney leg can be a bit overstated,” Pride commented. “When they come to you at the start of the preparation, he’s been in work for the last ten to twelve weeks and he’s done it all on the Sydney leg, and he seems to have adjusted well.”

Joining Poison Chalice in the race will be the front-running Cool Jakey, who recently claimed a strong victory at benchmark 94 grade. Pride indicated that Cool Jakey is in excellent condition for another attempt at Listed success.

For those keen to back a winner, the Civic Stakes presents an interesting betting proposition, with many considering options on Australian betting sites.