The Mick Price and Michael Kent trained Our Playboy, who was easy to back at $9 in an open betting race, turned in the performance of the meeting at the Sunshine Coast when he annihilated his opposition in the Group 3, Winx Guineas.
If the winning margin of 5.80 lengths was impressive, the way it was achieved was even more so.
Robbie Fradd drove the son of Sebring up along the inside in the early part of the straight before allowing the chestnut to shift to the better going in the centre of the track at the 200m. Once there, it was not so much a case of Our Playboy going through his gears, it was more like Fradd had pushed the turbo charge button.
Suddenly it was ‘race over’ as the promising three-year-old blasted a widening gap on the second placed, joint favourite Dzsenifer (5), who is no slouch herself.
Another perspective of the win can be gauged by the fact that Our Playboy was stone last, ten lengths off the leader with 650m left to run.
“From that gate (Our Playboy drew the widest barrier) it was a bit difficult,” said Robbie Fradd. “If I was a bit positive, he could get stuck three wide and I don’t think he is a horse thar you want to be too wide on. You want to get him some cover, so he relaxes with you.
“He was just nice and switched off, just travelling nice on the bridle and was breathing nicely during the race.
“Jeez … but once he saw daylight … he put them to sleep quickly.”
While the Jack Duncan trained Dzsenifer had to settle for a distance second placing, that was still good enough for her to maintain her enviable record of consistency which shows a race record of only having finished out of the first three places on only one occasion in eight starts.
The Tony Pike trained Not An Option ($14) just touched off Glitter Strip ($9.50) for third place, while the other joint $5 favourite Rogue Roker did not trouble the judge.
