A TIMELY TREBLE FOR THE JACK DUNCAN STABLE

By Graham Potter | Friday, January 5, 2024

Many people will claim to be happy to see the back of 2023, but chances are they have had a fortunate year compared to trainer Jack Duncan.

Severe personal health issues ... not to mention being badly injured when kicked by a horse ... has clouded much of Duncan’s existence for a long period of time.

It has been two years since he suffered a heart attack at Doomben racecourse and other another serious unrelated health challenge has followed ... but, in spite of all he has gone through, the Duncan stable is forging ahead into 2024, a what a start they have had!

In terms of providing a boost to both Duncan’s positive psyche and the stable bottom line, the results achieved by the stable at the Sunshine Coast on January 5 was worth its weight in gold.

Notacluehoworwho carried 60kg to victory on a soft track in the first race on the card ... a Maiden Handicap over 1200m ... to kick off a memorable meeting for Duncan. The lightly raced five-year-old gelding was winning for the first time in only five starts, having previously finished runner-up on two occasions. The son of Puissance De Lune, who was ridden by Mark Du Plessis, started favourite at $3.10 and won by 0.40 lengths.

Three races later Call Me Hilton also shed his Maiden ticket ... at the eleventh time of asking ... in a Maiden Handicap over 1600 when largely unwanted in the betting at a starting price of $13. Adam Sewell got the job done in the saddle when urging the five-year-old Under the Louvre gelding strongly to the line to upstage the $2 favourite Firebolt (Annabel Neasham/Damien Thornton) by 0.20 lengths.

Mark Du Plessis was again in the saddle when the Duncan stable claimed their third winner on the night in the form of Charlie’s Case who, like the two stable winners before him, was also a five-year-old. By taking out this Class 2 Handicap over 1400m, the son of Myboycharlie was winning for the third time in seventeen starts (with six minor placings). Charlie’s Case was a $2.90 second favourite.

Duncan and Du Plessis combined again in the last race on the card with Ruby Chicks ($4.20) and, for a while there halfway up the straight, the Duncan stable four-timer looks to be a real possibility, but, although very game all the way to the line, Ruby Chicks was run down late by the race favourite Ivinovich and had to settle for second place, just a length off the winner.

While winning four out of the seven races would have been exception, landing a treble on the night was, in itself, a memorable achievement, and everybody could not have been happier for Jack Duncan and his wife Meg with the hope being that these results will mark a welcome change of fortune them.

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