Steve Richards will aim Playwright for more races on his home track after the seven-year-old landed his fifth win at Flemington aided by a lovely ride by apprentice Damian Lane.
The gelding broke a run of 13 outs since his last win at headquarters over 2000m during 2010 Melbourne Cup week with his win in the National Jockeys Trust Hcp (2000m).
All but two of his seven wins from 53 starts have been at Flemington. He won the 2010 Benalla Cup (2046m) and a 1200m maiden at Ballarat at his debut when he beat subsequent Group Three Norman Robinson Stakes (2000m) winner Pillar Of Hercules.
“When the barriers came out on Wednesday and he drew two I thought he’d be hard to beat,” Richards said.
“He loves this track and he’s a firm track horse.
“He’s been going terrific this time in. We had him in the Easter Cup last week and I said to the owners ‘look we’ll wait until this week because he’ll tick more boxes here than in the Easter Cup at Caulfield’.
“So we held off running there. It’s no good running just a nice race.
“He’s rising eight now but everything just panned out well, perfect weather, perfect ride, perfect barrier and the horse is well.
“He’s won more than $700,000, he’s had a lot of knockers, but I wish I had more horses that have won that much money.
“It’s a pretty good effort, maybe he’s got another one in him. He’s stood the test of time and he has no soundness issues.”
Playwright landed his best win as a three-year-old when he won the 2008 Group Three C S Hayes Stakes (1410m) at Flemington.
He followed that with a short-half-head second to Sound Journey in the Group Two Alister Clark Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley and a third to Light Fantastic in the Group One Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington.
