OLIVE EYES NEXT SPRING

Canberra yesterday, Melbourne next year.  Trainer Nick Olive is hopefull Nat King Cu can progress enough to take part in next year's spring carnival after bringing up his fourth straight win at Thoroughbred Park yesterday.  Olive has been ultra-impressed with the son of King Cugat and will take the four-year-old gelding to Sydney for his next start - likely to be over 1600 metres.  Nat King Cu has won every race except his first, when he finished seventh to Daline in a maiden plate (1200m) at Canberra in March.  But since returning from a spell he's been undefeated, winning a maiden plate (1000m), two bench-mark 55 handicaps (1200m and 1400m) and yesterday's benchmark 65 handicap (1400m).  All those wins have come over different ground - everything from a heavy eight to a good three.  While admitting the horse was still a bit green, Olive  was still confident he would continue to improve and says the spring carnival is a realistic goal.  "Not this time in, he's not seasoned enough and developed and mature enough to handle this sort of pressure," Olive said.  "Hopefully next year for sure"  And jockey Brendan Ward saw no reason why Nat King Cu couldn't continue to improve.  He said it was a rare feat to win four in a row and was confident the gelding could get over more ground next time out.  "The way it's progressing now, it's only young and only lightly raced and doing everything right and it'll be better for it next time in," Ward said.  It's one of the most progressive horses coming up (in Canberra).  It's very hard for horses to go through their grades and put four (wins) together, not many do it."  Yesterday Nat King Cu won by a neck from Paramount Pete, ridden by Kayla Nisbet, with Lexical Ambiguity a further two lengths back in third.  Ward said the $2.40 favourite had an easy run until Nisbet threw down a challenge with about two furlongs to go.  "(He) had a soft run until the 400m then Kayla Nisbet took me on and I got flushed out a bit earlier than I wanted to, and it really toughed it out," he said.  "That was probably his most impressive win because he did get headed, probably at the furlong."  Meanwhile two Canberra horses - Vilakazi Street and Best As Zariz - will run at Rosehill today.  Kieth Dryden's Vilakazi Street ($26 overnight) will contest the open handicap (1400m), while John Nisbet's Best As Zariz ($17) is in the benchmark 75 handicap (1500m).