THE WIZARD OF THE WEST HEADS EAST TO RIDE REY MAGNERIO IN THE WILLIAM REID STAKES AT CAULFIELD

By Graham Potter | Friday, March 20, 2026

The Wizard Of The West will leave his kingdom behind this weekend to try and cast a positive spell and weave his magic over the racing fortunes of the Robbie Griffiths trained Rey Magnerio in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday.

This will be the third successive time that Willie Pike will ride the well performed six-year-old.

The two previous times were back on Pike’s home turf at Ascot in Western Australia in late 2025 where Rey Magnerio claimed a third place finish in the $1.5 million Group 1 Winterbottom over 1200m … finishing behind Libertad and Overpass … before going on to take out the $1.5 million Group 3 Gold Rush over 1400m when keeping Cosmic Crusader and Overpass back in the minor placings.

In the first two runs of that four race preparation …before Pike got on board … Ray Magnerio had also flexed his muscles to good effect under Jye McNeil, winning the Caulfield Sprint and then finishing third in the Listed Century Stakes, both over 1000m, which carried him very nicely through to the 1200m of the Winterbottom and then up to the 1400m of the Gold Rush.

Earlier in 2025, Rey Magnerio won the Group 2 Rubiton Stakes and finished third behind Jimmysstar in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate … both of those results coming at Caulfield where he will race on Saturday … so he has always been a horse of real substance as his fifty-precent winning strike rate shows.

On Saturday Rey Magnerio will race first-up with the William Reid coming three months after his last start in the Gold Rush.

On paper, that factor should hold no fears for the Griffiths trained runner as his race statistics show he has saluted three out of four times when racing first-up.

As much as a Group 1 win is an important target, Griffiths will be using this run of Rey Magnerio as a springboard into the $5 million Quokka at Ascot in Western Australia on April 18.

Rey Magnerio has a confirmed entry into Western Australia’s richest race having been picked up by Sportsbet, who are one of the thirteen slot-holders for the race.

Rey Magnerio is currently a $19 chance for the William Reid, where the betting is heading by Jimmysstar ($2.30), who is also first-up.

Jimmysstar will be bidding for a hat-trick of wins after taking out the Russell Balding and the Group 1 C F Orr in successive starts.

In the run before those two victories, Jimmysstar finished third behind Ka Ying Rising in The Everest, so he is clearly the one to beat.