Robyns Playboy primed for another Cup tilt

Robyns Playboy (Shadow Play) is primed to add to his incredible record in the Tuapeka Cup in his fifth harness racing tilt at Ascot Park on Sunday.

The Ross and Chris Wilson trained pacer comes into the annual feature with a remarkable record in four previous starts, having won three Tuapeka Cups and running second in another.

Chris Wilson admitted he isn’t exactly sure why Robyns Playboy loves the Tuapeka Cup so much, but he thinks the race comes at the perfect time of year for the pacer.

“He just loves this race, maybe it’s the time of the year,” Wilson said.

“It’s always when he’s just on the way up late in the spring, he’s not an early starter normally.”

“He’s wintered well and he’s picking up condition nicely so yeah, maybe it’s just that.”

Following an excellent last start second at Ascot Park, in which he was unlucky, Robyns Playboy looks poised for another big effort in the Tuapeka Cup this year.

“His fitness is as good as it’s been all season and he’s happy and healthy so yeah, we’re pretty happy with where he is for a Sunday.”

The Wilson stable have a two-pronged attack on the Tuapeka Cup, with Brookies Player also starting in the feature event.

The pacer will have his first standing start in the race, which is a concern for his camp.

“Robyns Playboy couldn’t head him off in work (on Friday), he’s a great front runner.”

“We are just a bit worried about how quickly he can step.”

“I think he will step but he just might be a bit slow, he might give himself an extra 10m handicap.”

Miki Knows will be out to put a last start mishap behind him in the Tuapeka Cup.

The pacer galloped in his last start, though after seeing the race replay, trainer Jeremy Douglas said there was a clear reason for the mistake.

“I’m pretty confident he will do things right this time,” the trainer said.

“He copped a bit of interference, which caused that mistake last time.”

“It was a bit of a shame because he was almost definitely second, and probably a good chance of winning that race, but we’ll move on from that.”

Douglas has targeted the Tuapeka Cup with Miki Knows as he builds towards bigger targets.

“This was the first of the smaller goals for him this season.”

“So we’ve tried to build him towards this race, and then we’ll freshen him up, and we’ll go again for the New Zealand Cup meeting.”

“So if I’ve done my job right, he should be pretty close this week.”

From the front line, Miki Knows gets a 10m handicap on his key rival Robyns Playboy

For complete race entries, click here.

by Jonny Turner, for Harness Racing New Zealand