Clarke says Siakam primed but wary of tricky Adelaide River Cup field

[Wandering Eyes]

Trainer Gary Clarke and winning jockey Paul Denton are all smiles after they combined to win the St Patrick’s Day Cup (1600m) with Siakam at Darwin’s Fannie Bay in March. Picture: Caroline Camilleri (Darwin Photography Professionals)

When assessing consistent performers in the Top End, it’s hard to ignore Siakam.

The five-year-old gelding, trained by champion Darwin mentor Gary Clarke, will more than likely start as favourite in the $30,000 Adelaide River Cup (1600m) at Fannie Bay on Saturday.

For the second straight year, the Adelaide River Show Society Race Club won’t host it’s meeting at the only grassed-surface in the NT as it failed to recover following relentless rain during the wet season.

Up to 1.7m of rain fell on the Adelaide River track – located 100km south of Darwin – rendering the surface unsuitable with the annual meeting transferred to Darwin following an inspection by Thoroughbred Racing NT and ARSSRC officials in late April.

With horses such as Siakam continuing their preparations for the Darwin Cup Carnival, which kicks off on July 8, there was no chance of the Adelaide River Cup meeting being called off with the Darwin Turf Club accommodating seven races this weekend.

After finishing second over 1600m (0-66) on Palmerston Sprint Day on July 30, Siakam has won five of his past 10 starts and the only time he didn’t run a place was on March 4 when he finished fifth behind Poupee over 1300m (BM76).

Victory in the $40,000 St Patrick’s Day Cup (1600m) on March 18 at 0-76 level by three lengths was followed by a narrow loss behind Eurellydidit over 1600m (BM65) on April 14 before a last start win by two lengths in an open 1300m handicap on May 20.

The son of Akeed Mofeed arrived in the NT from the stable of Bjorn Baker in NSW and in 23 starts at Fannie Bay he has won seven races and has been placed 11 times.

He may have flopped in two Alice Springs starts, but Siakam, who is hard to beat if he settles in front, has only missed finishing in the top five in the Top End twice and will prove stiff opposition for the other four Adelaide River Cup runners.

“He’s just a bloody good horse to have in your stables, anything from 1300-1600m he’s pretty hard to beat – he goes out and gives you 100 per cent every time,” Clarke said.

“Originally we would have never thought he would have made it to where he’s made it, but he keeps raising the bar and he keeps jumping it.

“No telling where he’ll finish up, really.

“He’s not the best actioned horse and we always thought it might come against him at some part, but it’s just him.

“He’s just got a couple of square wheels, but he races quite well.”

Clarke has a plethora of quality horses at his disposal and after securing the Top End and Country trainer’s premiership for the past 10 years he once again leads the way this season with 35 wins from Phil Cole (25).

He agrees that Siakam was a good pick up.

“We had a few little hiccups with him in the early days when we first got him, but since then he’s been pretty much trouble free – he’s done really well,” Clarke added.

“When he returned from a spell in February, our original plan was the St Paddy’s Cup and he got that.

“Right now we haven’t got any real plans, but we’re looking at this race – the Adelaide River Cup – and if he gets over that we’ll decide whether we pick a restricted mile race for him or give him a go at one of the better mile races over Carnival.”

Jarrod Todd will partner Siakam as Paul Denton, who won the last two races on the horse, is booked to ride Kerry Petrick’s Magnolia Rose.

Despite the small field on Saturday, which includes Ironedge – now trained by Clarke’s daughter Ella – the NT’s top trainer is also wary of Petrick’s Boom Boom Sweet and Cole’s Smuggling.

“Even though it’s a small field, it will be an interesting race,” he said.

“It’s going to be tricky because there’s only five in it, but three or four of them are leaders, so it’s going to be the survival of the fittest by the end of it or it’s going to be made for something coming from behind.

“I had Ironedge for three starts during the Alice Springs Carnival for two seconds and a third, while he finished second in his first start in Darwin for Ella behind Magnolia Rose, who did impress in Alice.

“Magnolia Rose is definitely a threat, she’s jumping up in grade after that win over 1600m (0-70) two weeks ago.

“Once again it’s a leader, but there wasn’t a lot between her and Ironedge last start.”

Clarke is still mindful of the highly-talented Smuggling, an absolute star in the NT, and should the 10-year-old gelding salute it will certainly cheer up Cole, who is nursing a broken foot suffered earlier this week following a trackwork incident when a horse he was riding slipped and fell on him.

“Phil’s a bit like me, you shouldn’t be mucking around with those kind of horses when you’re at our age – leave that to the young fellas,” Clarke said.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed following a TRNT Board meeting that 2024 Adelaide River Cup Day will be held on the last Saturday in August – August 31.

“We will see how that goes bearing in mind they will have to water through the dry, but at least the Adelaide River Show Society Race Club will be able to prepare the track in the dry, rather than in the wet when they can’t get on it,” TRNT chief executive officer Andrew O’Toole said.

Clarke did have sympathy for the Adelaide River community after their meeting was once again deferred to Darwin.

“It’s a tragedy, I reckon, tragedy for the town and a tragedy for Territory racing,” he said.

“It’s an iconic race meeting that everybody looks forward to – even those who aren’t racing people.

“It draws a big crowd, but I don’t know if a meeting in late August will get the same sort of crowd.

“It may, but when they used to have the two Adelaide River meetings the first would draw thousands and the second one would only draw hundreds.

“Time will tell, I suppose.”

The last time the second meeting was held in Adelaide River was August 26 in 2017.

It’s a frustrating situation for the ARSSRC and they deserve a slice of luck, but at least the meeting will still go ahead on Saturday.

In 2018, the Cup Day was abandoned after two races due to the track’s surface following wet season rains.

There was no meeting in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and last year the meeting was switched to Fannie Bay when feral pigs damaged the track’s surface.

More horse racing news

View the full article