Hadouken takes to the Top End in style with Darwin Cup victory
Dirt track revelation Hadouken (6 g Real Impact ex Any Other Day, by Redoute’s Choice) kept his perfect Northern Territory record intact by claiming the local industry’s biggest race, the Darwin Cup (2050m), on Monday.
The well-travelled gelding, who started his career in Sydney with now retired Warwick Farm-based trainer Gabrielle Ellis before joining the stable of Peter Robl on the Gold Coast, brought up a Territory hat-trick with his tough victory in the $200,000 main event which brought the Top End carnival to a close.
The Kooringal Stud-bred Hadouken ($3.40), who had won at his Territory debut over 1600 metres on July 6 before running a fast time to score in the Buntine Handicap (2050m) as his Cup lead-up, defied a wide on-pace run to win the Darwin Cup by 0.4 lengths over leader Wolfburn (Snitzel) ($6) and race favourite Bear Story (Kodiac) ($2.30). He was ridden to victory by Sydney-based jockey Tyler Schiller.
Hadouken’s performance left Robl “a little bit lost for words” post-race.
“Going out of the straight and the back side the first time there, it wasn’t looking pretty,” Robl told Sky Racing of Hadouken’s wide run from the outside barrier of 12.
“I thought with him doing that amount of work he’s not going to have the ability to beat Bear Story, but I think it’s testament to the horse how well he’s adapted to the dirt here and the lifestyle.
“Thanks [to] Tyler for coming and riding him and [I] thank the owners for trusting me when I mentioned bringing the horse to Darwin. It’s not an easy or a cheap exercise from the Gold Coast, but look, all’s well that ends well. What can we say? Outstanding.”
Schiller said the wide run wasn’t as bad as it may have looked, but he still described the gelding’s performance as brave.
“I didn’t think he did too much [work] because I was actually pretty quiet on him early, I let him jump seeing if I could get across, when I couldn’t I thought I may as well ride him a touch quiet,” Schiller told Sky Racing.
“I was out of the kickback and I wasn’t using him to go forward. It wasn’t until we straightened up down the back straight [where it is] downhill that I thought I could use him without doing too much while the others were all stacked up.
“To his credit, he was probably a little bit kidding to the other horse [Wolfburn], but he won in the end pretty easily.”
Hadouken was bought by his original trainer Ellis and Sandoch Racing, who still own the horse, for $50,000 at the 2020 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale out of the Kooringal Stud draft. After Monday’s Darwin Cup win, he has now banked over $343,000 in prize-money and has won eight times from 35 starts.