Pig farmer Darren Wilson eyes Group 1 glory with King Of Pop during Sydney spring carnival

Meet Darren Wilson, the Brisbane businessman and pork processing king who has Black Opal Stakes winner King Of Pop set to resume in Saturday’s $250,000 Group 3 San Domenico Stakes at Rosehill Gardens.

Three-year-old King Of Pop, trained by Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou, races in Wilson’s blue and white star colours and there are other heavy hitters such as Max Whitby and Neil Werrett who feature in the ownership.

Wilson, who has raced many good horses with Brisbane trainer Kelly Schweida over the years including Miss Joelene and $1.7m earner The Odyssey, got into racing ownership thanks to Oink.

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The late jockey Tim Bell’s parents and Heidi Whalley, Wilson’s step daughter, were also among the owners of Oink.

“Heidi used to go out with Tim Bell and she was working for Kelly Schweida at the time, so I bought Oink which was the first racehorse I ever had,” Wilson said.

“I left school at age 14 … started off as an apprentice butcher, then bought a butcher shop, went into meat wholesaling, now we process between 5000 to 6000 pigs a week.

“Our kids have now taken over the pig farms.

“I have had a lot of nice horses over the years, but King Of Pop would 100 per cent be the most exciting young horse that I have had.”

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King Of Pop’s trainers have an extremely high opinion of the colt who has won two of his four starts and finished 12th in the Golden Slipper after he had the Black Opal in Canberra under his belt.

He will resume on Saturday after having had two trials, the latest of which was a real eye-catcher when steaming home behind tearaway trial leader Bonita Queen at Canterbury.

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Wilson outlined the backstory behind him becoming managing owner of the exciting son of 2020 Golden Slipper winner Farnan.

“I was talking to Gerald (Ryan) on the phone and I was asking him about a filly and then we started talking about other horses he had purchased,” Wilson said.

“He rattled off this one and he said he thought he would be a good colt.

“No-one had really rushed into it (the ownership) as he was quite expensive.

“It was a Monday night and I got off the phone and I thought ‘I will buy that’.

“So I rang Gerald back and said ‘give me 65 per cent’ and he was pretty pumped.

“Since owning this colt, I have struck up a good relationship with Max Whitby who now lives down on the Gold Coast.

“After the Black Opal, someone offered us money for him to go to stud but we never sold.

“We are excited about him, so we will see what happens and what the future holds.”

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Wilson knows the feeling of owning a Group 1 winner – he raced 2020 Goodwood winner Despatch with Tony McEvoy – and he has his fingers crossed King Of Pop can score at racing’s elite level.

King Of Pop has drawn barrier eight of nine in the San Domenico and will be ridden by Zac Lloyd.

Originally published as Pig farmer Darren Wilson eyes Group 1 glory with King Of Pop during Sydney spring carnival