OUR PLAYBOY ANNIHILATES HIS OPPOSITION IN THE GROUP 3 WINX GUINEAS

By Graham Potter | Monday, July 12, 2021

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 towards 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 as Our Playboy exploded away from his opposition.

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.

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.

“He is a very nice horse,” said Robbie Fradd of the runaway winner.

“It was a sticky draw. From that gate (Our Playboy drew the widest barrier) it was a bit difficult. 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.

“With a gate like that you can either go forward if you’ve got the speed, but I’d rather go back and let the horse finish off.

“He was just nice and switched off, just travelling nice on the bridle and was breathing nicely during the race.

“Look, it is a track where the fence is quite a bit off. You can go through it … but not for too long … and then you want to drift out wider on the track. So, that’s kinda what I did with him. I saved every inch I could on the turn and then let him drift out … and jeez, once he saw daylight, he put them to sleep quickly.”

Our Playboy has now won four out of fourteen starts and all of his wins have come on either soft or heavy going.

By contrast, he has had nine goes on good going without running a place, so he clearly got conditions to suit in the Winx Guineas and his preference for softer underfoot conditions could well remain a big factor in his future endeavours.

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