Gary Clarke, the Top End’s dominant trainer for the past decade, made it two Darwin Cup Carnival feature wins in as many weeks when Playoffs sealed the $60,000 Asian United Food Service Chief Ministers Cup (1600m) at Fannie Bay on Saturday.
It follows the win by Wolfburn the previous week in the $75,000 Darwin Guineas (1600m) – Day 1 of the Darwin Turf Club’s eight-race meeting extravaganza.
Playoffs arrived in the NT from the leading Ballarat stable of Ciaron Maher and David Eustace and was resuming from a spell after a last start fourth at 0-84 level over 2000m at Caulfield on April 9.
The Victorian galloper’s main target is the $200,000 Great Northern Darwin Cup (2050m) on August 1 and his chances have only escalated after rallying in the home straight when it appeared as though he had been headed.
Since 2002, the last eight winners of the weight-for-age Chief Ministers Cup have gone on to win the Darwin Cup.
For Playoffs, who has proven more than competitive over the longer distances in Victoria, it was just his third win over 1600m in 22 career starts – and that also includes a win over 1400m.
In the five-year-old gelding’s past 15 starts since November 2020 – ranging from 1600-2500m – he has recorded four wins, two seconds, four thirds, four fourths and one fifth.
The Tavistock gelding has saluted over 2000m at Caulfield at 0-84 level and over 2500m at Moonee Valley at 0-80 level, and remarkably he has only ever finished outside the top five on four occasions.
Settling in second place behind Nicole Irwin’s runaway leader Masterati (Sairyn Fawke) along the back straight, Playoffs (Jarrod Todd) soon had Jason Manning’s Noir De Rue (Vanessa Manning) on its outside for company.
Swinging down the side with 700m to go, last start winner Masterati ($3.80) was easily eight lengths in front as Kym Hann’s Our Destrier (Stan Tsaikos) – an impressive winner on his NT debut in open company over 1600m on June 4 – made his move.
Swinging for home, Masterati was labouring with Playoffs looming on his outside, Our Destrier looming outside Playoffs, and Noir De Rue looming along the rails inside Masterati.
With 250m left to go there were four horses spread across the track.
Our Destrier appeared to hit the front, but Playoffs wouldn’t yield as they kicked clear of Noir De Rue and the fading Masterati.
Meanwhile, Mark Nyhan’s Trident (Jason Lyon), a genuine star in the NT since debuting on Anzac Day last year in Alice Springs, was winding up after initially settling at the rear of the seven-horse field.
It seemed as though Our Destrier ($2.70 fav), from Hann’s stable in Bendigo, would prevail, but in the end Playoffs ($11) seemingly found his second wind to claim victory by half a length in a time of 1.34.60.
For Todd, it was his second victory in the Chief Ministers Cup after piloting Royal Request to victory for trainer Neil Dyer in 2017 – the Kyneton galloper then went on to win the Darwin Cup.
Noir De Rue ($7), third in the Darwin Cup last year, finished a length behind Our Destrier in third place, while Trident ($4.40) typically grew wings before finishing a further length and a half adrift in fourth place.
Looking ahead to the Darwin Cup it was hard to fault the first three horses across the line, but the manner in which Trident, last year’s Darwin Guineas winner, stormed home over the final 400m indicated that he clearly gave his rivals far too much start.
Angela Forster’s Orcein (Paul Shiers) and Emma Steel’s Gone Bye (Adam Nicholls), respective outsiders at $31 and $17 with the top bookies, were never in the mix and trailed Masterati across the line.
Clarke was obviously pleased with the win, but confirmed that he hadn’t exactly devised a strategy going into the race.
“We didn’t really have a plan because we didn’t know what he would do,” he said.
“We trialed him and he went pretty average, but that was without blinkers or tongue ties – that can make a big difference.
“So we didn’t really know what to expect.
“They can have all the form in the world, but they’ve got to adapt to the way we race here.
“There was always a question mark if he was going to finish off when he was ridden forward like that.
“When they came to him I thought, gee, he might be in trouble here – but after the race Jarrod said he was never in trouble at all.
“Whenever a horse came at him he just found extra – Jarrod said he loved the fight.”
On Thursday, Clarke said he wasn’t sure if Playoffs would have another run before the Darwin Cup adding that he was happy to wait and see how the horse performed on Saturday.
Clarke, who will win his 10th straight Top End trainer’s premiership at the end of the 2021/22 season, confirmed that Playoffs, who pulled up well after his Fannie Bay debut, will go straight to the Darwin Cup.
“It was Playoffs’ very first start on the track – I think we’re going to probably take more benefit out of the run and he is going to be even harder to beat in his next start,” Clarke said.
“They had the chance to beat him and they couldn’t – it was a good ride, a good run and I’m happy.”
The only time Clarke has won the Darwin Cup was with Lightinthenite (2015) and Zahspeed (2018) – both horses also won the Chief Ministers Cup.
Finally, it was a winning double for the Clarke stable on Saturday when Akoni (Jarrod Todd), the $2 favourite with Palmerbet, made amends for an unlucky last start second by winning a 1200m maiden in the three-year-old gelding’s third ever career start.
More horse racing news
