Playoffs set for Darwin Cup audition at Fannie Bay

[Wandering Eyes]

Leading Top End trainer Gary Clarke is aiming to take out the Alice Springs Cup/Darwin Cup double this year. (Caroline Camilleri/Darwin Photography Professionals)

After landing the $75,000 Darwin Guineas (1600m) last weekend with Wolfburn, champion Top End trainer Gary Clarke now has the $200,000 Darwin Cup (2050m) in his sights.

Playoffs, who is his main contender in the Northern Territory’s biggest race on August 1, debuts at Fannie Bay at weight-for-age level on Saturday in the $60,000 Chief Ministers Cup (1600m).

That is the feature race on Day 2 of the Darwin Cup Carnival, and in the past 20 years it has proven to be an excellent guide when it comes to analysing the main event.

Eight winners of the Chief Ministers have gone on to capture the Darwin Cup – Brave Decision (2002), Lanson (2005), Shout Out Loud (2010), Hawks Bay (2012), Lightinthenite (2015), Royal Request (2017), Zahspeed (2018) and Highly Decorated (2021).

Lightinthenite and Zahspeed were trained by Clarke – the only occasions in which he has won the Cup.

Playoffs, a five-year-old gelding, arrives from the powerful Ciaron Maher & David Eustace stable in Victoria, where he has proven highly competitive over the longer trips in Melbourne.

In fact, 10 of the five-year-old gelding’s last 11 starts since New Year’s Day last year have been over 2000m and beyond.

He has triumphed over 2000m at Caulfield at 0-84 level and over 2500m at Moonee Valley at 0-80 level, and during that period he hasn’t finished outside the top five.

To put it all into perspective, Playoffs has had 21 starts for five wins, two seconds, four thirds, five fourths and one fifth – his last appearance was at Caulfield on April 9, where he finished fourth over 2000m (0-84).

“Playoffs basically ended up in Darwin because of Ciaron Maher – we always keep in touch a bit,” Clarke said.

“He’s wanted to look for the right horse to send to Darwin for one of his owners who previously had a horse up here called Enigman that won the Palmerston Sprint in 2020.

“I think the owner would like to win a Cup now, so Ciaron chose this horse basically for him to come up here and win the Cup.

“I’m looking after him.

“Some local owners have bought into him as well.”

There are only seven starters in the Chief Ministers Cup, and even if Playoffs brings his best form to the table he’s going to find Our Destrier, Trident, Masterati, Noir De Rue and Gone Bye stiff opposition.

Clarke is happy with the horse, but isn’t sure what to expect from him first up.

“We’ll just have to wait and see on Saturday, I suppose,” he said.

“The horse has done everything right since he’s been here – he’s pretty happy, healthy and fit.
“He has been working quite well on the surface.

“I put him in a 900m barrier trial – he sort of got left behind a bit in that.”

Clarke added that he will assess as to whether or not he will give the horse another run before the Darwin Cup after his run on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Clarke confessed that he and his family, as well as stable staff and friends, didn’t celebrate too wildly after $17 outsider Wolfburn saluted in the Darwin Guineas.

“It was all pretty quiet – we live out of town now and it was a pretty big day as we had 14 runners,” he said.

“I was rapt with Wolfburn’s run – he’s just got so much confidence out of that run.

“He’s strutting up and down like he’s something pretty good now.”

Clarke, who celebrated a winning treble last Saturday when Tugga War and Syncline also prevailed, confirmed that Wolfburn would line up in the $135,000 NT Derby (2050m) on July 16.

The three-year-old gelding will be aiming to become only the third horse to take out the Ladbrokes Triple Crown by winning the Darwin Guineas, NT Derby and Darwin Cup, and thus secure his connections a $100,000 windfall.

Only two horses have achieved the feat – Brinney (1989) and Ventilago (1996) – with the $100,000 bonus introduced in 1995.

The only time Clarke came close to winning the Triple Crown was with the talented Finke in 2016, when he won the Guineas and Derby before finishing third behind the Michael Hickmott-trained Canny Lad in the Cup.

“Even though Finke did slip at the start in the Cup, I don’t think he would have beaten the winner that day – he may have ran second,” Clarke admitted.

The Clarke stable had a minor setback last Saturday when Thunder Peak and Prince Ruban bled, with the former unable to race for the next three months and the latter set to race again before the end of the carnival.

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