The Beast is back

It’s likely Southland’s harness racing hero pacer Robyns Playboy (Shadow Play) tagged “The Beast from the East” will be the only horse ever to have won three Tuapeka Cups.

The talented pacer made it three, backing up his wins in 2019 and 2020. He also ran a close second to Paddyproudfoot in 2021.

The win comes on the back of a disastrous Australian campaign where he underperformed, with his connections perplexed by his below par efforts.

“It was such a relief. In my dreams he was going to win today but it’s different in realty,” co-trainer Ross Wilson said.

There’s been lots of pressure on Wilson and his son and training partner Chris to get Robyn’s Playboy back to his Southland form and it wasn’t helped three weeks ago when the horse had to be pulled up at the Wyndham Workouts.

“I thought ‘what the hell’s wrong with him’ but didn’t realise a hopple carrier had come undone. So things were going wrong. But today everything went to plan. Although I was happy with him at home I didn’t really know whether he was going to do the same as he did in Australia and go to the races and not want to be there. It was great to see him run like that.”

In today’s (Oct. 23) Tuapeka Lodge sponsored 2700 metre feature driver Craig Ferguson got the six year old away brilliantly from his fifteen metre handicap and onto the back of pacemaker Mach Quillan.

“I was happy to sit in the trail because he does have a bit of speed. We’ve always driven him tough, but he’s reasonably quick too. He was following the right one. He was always going to lead and run. He was travelling nice all the way and turning in I thought he was going to be hard to beat,” Ferguson said.

ROBYNS PLAYBOY REPLAY

The winning margin was three quarters of a length with American Me charging home late for second.

The whole Wilson family and an added bunch of loyal supporters gave the horse plenty of noise from the Ascot Park stand as he powered up the passing lane. The beast was back!!

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink