He may have been riding at Fannie Bay for the first time on Monday, but leading Sydney jockey Tyler Schiller showed his class by guiding Hadouken to victory in the $200,000 Darwin Cup (2050m).
Schiller, fourth in last season’s Sydney premiership, rode the six-year-old gelding for Gold Coast trainer Peter Robl.
In his only other ride on Monday, Schiller won the race before the Cup aboard Iknowhatyouredoing for trainer Kevin Lamprecht over 2050m.
Schiller had partnered Hadouken previously when second over 1500m (Class 2) at Goulburn in September 2022 for former trainer Gabrielle Ellis.
After drawing the outside gate in the Darwin Cup’s 12-horse field, the son of Real Impact travelled wide throughout before overcoming Gary Clarke’s Wolfburn (Jarrod Todd) and Neil Dyer’s Bear Story (Noel Callow).
Hadouken ($3.40) had played second fiddle to Bear Story – the $2.30 favourite with online bookmakers – and Wolfburn ($6) in betting leading up to the Cup.
The trio brought good form to the table, and they were the only Cup runners under double-figure odds.
Victory made it eight wins from 35 starts for Hadouken.
Interestingly, Callow rode the horse to victory in its final start for Ellis on the Gold Coast, and Todd partnered the gelding when it won the Buntine Handicap (2050m) before the Cup.
Hadouken was victorious first up in the NT in early July over 1600m (BM66) with Gold Coast apprentice Jasper Franklin as pilot.
That made it four wins out of four on the synthetic and three wins out of three on the dirt for Haudoken.
Schiller is also three from three on the dirt after winning his first race at Hillston (NSW) in April 2019.
By dictating the pace in the Cup, Schiller felt that a fit Hadouken would outstay his rivals.
In the end, the Queensland galloper proved far too good despite covering plenty of ground.
“We stuck it out, the horse was very brave,” Schiller said.
“I didn’t think he did too much because I was actually pretty quiet on him early.
“I let him jump, see if I could get across early.
“When I couldn’t, I thought I may as well try and ride him a touch quiet.
“Still had that kick back out wide, I wasn’t using him to go forward at that point.
“It wasn’t until we straightened up down the back, until we got down that down-hill I thought I could use him without doing too much while the others were all stacked up.
“To his credit, he kept going.”
Schiller remained confident despite Wolfburn refusing to yield in the home straight despite spotting Hadouken 2.5kg.
“I was just questioning whether Wolfburn was going to keep going with me or not,” he said.
“When he did, it was sort of worrying my horse out of it – but to his credit he kicked again at the 100 and inside the 50 he was never going to get beat.
“I knew Bear Story was somewhere behind me, I was hopeful that he wouldn’t stay second up.
“For Haudoken to come all this way and win a Listed Cup, it’s fantastic.”
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