With unassailable leads, the champion trainers and jockeys in the Northern Territory for the 2022/23 racing season will have the opportunity to let their hair down this weekend.
Darwin trainer Gary Clarke has sealed the Top End title for the 11th-straight year, while Dick Leech has taken out the Alice Springs gong for the first time.
Jarrod Todd has secured the Top End jockeys’ crown for a fourth-straight year, with fellow Darwin-based hoop Sonja Wiseman becoming the premier rider in the Red Centre.
The quartet will celebrate their achievement among their peers with the Darwin Turf Club holding its last meeting of the season at Fannie Bay on Saturday and the Alice Springs Turf Club conducting its final program at Pioneer Park on Sunday.
Clarke, a former jockey, has accumulated over 850 wins during his training career and has once again exceeded 50 wins this season with 51 already in the bank after finishing with 55 a year ago.
Phil Cole, second behind Clarke at the end of last season, is once again next best in the training ranks with 34 wins, followed by Tayarn Halter (24), Tom Logan (16), Chris Pollard (14), Chris Nash (10) and Kerry Petrick (10).
Todd – Clarke’s No.1 stable rider – and Wiseman have battled it out all season for the jockeys’ title, with the former finishing with a wet sail to skip ahead of the latter, who was at one stage seven wins clear in April.
Todd (41) leads the way from Wiseman (30), followed by apprentice Emma Lines (21), Paul Shiers (17), Wayne Davis (15), Casey Hunter (14), Paul Denton (12), apprentice Jade Hampson (12) and Stan Tsaikos (12).
Apart from Darwin, the annual Adelaide River Cup and Katherine Cup meetings help form the Top End racing schedule – although the past two Adelaide River meetings in June were transferred to Darwin due to complications with the NT’s only grassed surface.
Leech, a juggernaut during the second half of the season in the Red Centre, has trained in the NT for years and has picked up his fair share of feature wins in Darwin and Alice Springs.
With 27 wins, including the Alice Springs Cup with Write Your Name in April, Leech is well clear of last year’s champion trainer, Lisa Whittle (16), as well as Terry Gillett (15), Paul Gardner (13), Petrick (13), Will Savage (13) and Greg Connor (12) in the Alice Springs premiership.
Wiseman, now on 26 wins, has held a healthy lead for most of the season in the Alice Springs jockeys’ race, with apprentice Dakota-Lee Gillett (22), Todd (21), apprentice Ianish Luximon (17), Jessie Philpot (17), Hampson (16) and defending champion Tsaikos (16) doing their best to bridge the gap.
Clarke, Leech, Todd and Wiseman will be in attendance for the seven-race program at Fannie Bay on Saturday – Day 5 of the Darwin Cup Carnival – with Wiseman heading to Alice Springs for the five-race meeting on Sunday.
Seventeen-year-olds Lines and Gillett have sealed the apprentice titles in the Top End and Red Centre, respectively.
As far as overall NT honours are concerned, it’s Clarke (53) ahead in the trainers’ department from Cole (36), Leech (32) and Halter (25), with Todd (62) leading the jockeys’ section from Wiseman (56), Hampson (28) and Tsaikos (28).
Hampson, currently sidelined as she recovers from a back injury, will be the leading apprentice from Gillett (25), Lines (24) and Luximon (22).
Speaking of the Top End carnival, four of the eight meetings remain with the racing smorgasbord concluding on August 7 with Darwin Cup Day.
Clarke is the leading trainer with eight wins from Cole (5) and Halter (5), while Todd tops the jockeys with eight wins from Lines (5), Shiers (5) and Mark Pegus (3).
Last year, Clarke ended the Darwin Cup Carnival as the top trainer with 17 wins – which included success in five of the eight feature races – and Todd was the leading jockey with 15 wins.
The pair combined to win the feature double with Playoffs taking out the Darwin Cup and Syncline securing the Palmerston Sprint.
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