Based on their exhilarating wins on Saturday, a showdown between Highly Decorated and Our Destrier in the $200,000 Great Northern Darwin Cup (2050m) on August 1 is now eagerly anticipated – even at this very early stage.
Fingers crossed it will eventuate.
Highly Decorated, last year’s Darwin Cup winner, made his long-awaited return to the Top End from South Australia and could not have been more impressive after saluting in the $20,000 Oolloo Investments Handicap (1200m).
Later in the day, Victorian visitor Our Destrier made everyone at Fannie Bay take notice with an emphatic debut victory in the Northern Territory in the $25,000 Adelaide River Cup (1600m).
Significantly, the Nicole Irwin-trained Highly Decorated and the Kym Hann-trained Our Destrier didn’t appear to be under duress passing the winning post.
After a first up third on debut at Fannie Bay last year, Highly Decorated produced one of the more spectacular performances in the NT by winning four straight before making it three wins from as many starts during the Darwin Cup Carnival.
The five-year-old gelding won the Adelaide River Cup when it was held on Adelaide River’s grassed surface before taking out the ROANT Gold Cup (1300m), Chief Ministers Cup (1600m) and Darwin Cup during the Carnival.
He arrived in Darwin with a rating of 48 with just one win to his name and headed home with a rating of 86 – it was quite simply a fairytale.
Returning to South Australia, Highly Decorated had just the three starts in September and October without success.
Our Destrier earned a trip north after finding form in December and January with a win at Albury followed by two wins at Murray Bridge – all wins were over 1600m and that second win at Murray Bridge was at 0-82 level.
Before that the five-year-old gelding’s form was far from earth shattering, but he has certainly got his act together and Hann has a very high opinion of the horse.
The Bendigo trainer was bullish that Our Destrier could make an impact in the Adelaide River Cup and for the duration of his stay in Darwin after an eye-catching trial at Fannie Bay recently – which even caught the attention of Irwin.
Highly Decorated is a confirmed starter in the ROANT Gold Cup (1300m) on June 25, and at this stage it appears likely he will meet Our Destrier for the first time in the Chief Ministers Cup (1600m) on July 9.
There was a lot expectancy yesterday with Highly Decorated, the reigning Darwin Cup winner, getting the rare opportunity to face off with last year’s Palmerston Sprint winner, who just happened to be Mayameen.
The feature winners from the 2021 Darwin Cup Carnival were expected to fight it out, but unfortunately the Chris Nash-trained Mayameen ($3fav) failed to fire and finished at the tail in the five-horse field.
After trailing Phil Cole’s runaway leader Kronos (Stacey Callow), Highly Decorated (Jessie Philpot) made his move approaching the home turn before kicking away in the home straight to win by two lengths.
Alice Springs rider Philpot rode Highly Decorated in his last six wins a year ago, so nothing was going to prevent her from making the trip to Darwin to partner the horse once again.
Significantly, both Highly Decorated ($4.40) and Kronos ($3.10) won at the corresponding Adelaide River Cup meeting last year.
Yesterday, Highly Decorated was also spotting Kronos 6.5kg.
Saccharo ($4.40), from the Cole stable and ridden by Wayne Davis, finished third in his first appearance in the Top End after arriving from Victoria.
Irwin, who calls Darwin home these days after relocating from Murray Bridge, could only describe Highly Decorated’s win as awesome.
“Yes, he was definitely that – he’s still a little freak on the Darwin track,” she said.
“Look, we were originally not going to start him until the ROANT Gold Cup, which is in three weeks, but he has just been working so well.
“And we were actually worried he might sour off a bit if we didn’t do something with him.
“So this race just presented itself – they moved it back to the Darwin track from Adelaide River and we thought we’ll just give him a go around and knock a few beans out of him.
“Yeah, he probably did a little bit better than expected.
“It was a big thing for him to get headed so far in front and have to run Kronos down.
“He hasn’t had to do that for a long while.
“He actually hasn’t had to do that since Adelaide River last year.”
Irwin has a rough idea what lies ahead for the Epaulette gelding.
“ROANT Gold Cup, to the Chief Ministers and then we’ll make a decision after that if we go the Chief Ministers to the Darwin Cup or if we give him one more before that,” she said.
Meanwhile, Our Destrier ($4.20), with runaway Alice Springs jockey’s premiership leader Stan Tsaikos in the saddle, settled at the rear of the seven-horse field along the back straight before winding up at the 800m.
He was forced three wide to round the leaders Mellors (Jarrod Todd) and Brother Bassy (Stacey Callow) approaching the home turn before sprinting away to win comfortably by three lengths.
The Gary Clarke-trained Mellors ($6) did a good job to hang on for second, while the Angela Forster-trained Starouz (Sairyn Fawke) – the $3.90 favourite with the top bookmakers and recent Tennant Creek Cup (1600m) winner – finished encouragingly to grab third place.
It was a ridiculously easy win by Our Destrier, and Tsaikos couldn’t hide his delight after the race.
“Smart win from the rear – I was pretty happy with the way he went to the line and finished up eased down with the ears pricked,” he said.
“They’ve got a smart horse, Kym and the connections.
“He’ll press on now to the Chief Ministers Cup and from there he’ll go into the Cup.
Coming from the back to win the race wasn’t necessarily a concern for Tsaikos.
“Yeah, that’s his pattern,” he said.
“We probably didn’t want to get back as far as we did, but that’s the way it panned out.
“He put them away, I couldn’t be happier with him.
“And I couldn’t be happier with the way Kym’s got him up here in one piece and produced him first up over a mile.
“It was a lacklustre tempo, so I sort of got into rhythm before they got going.
“I think that’s probably why he won as convincingly as he did.
With an eye to the future, Tsaikos was perhaps more optimistic than confident that the Zoustar gelding could run out the 2050m come the Darwin Cup.
“He’s unproven at a mile and a quarter, but he’ll definitely start in the Chief Ministers Cup – which is a weight-for-age race – which will suit him down to the ground,” he said.
“I don’t see that there will be a problem with him running the mile and a quarter.”
Finally, you didn’t have to convince Irwin that Our Destrier has clearly got ability.
“He was my other tip of the day after I watched it trial last week,” she said.
“Super trial – yeah, good horse.
“I think he’ll be a worry going forward for us.”
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