Gary Clarke’s apple isle galloper brings in good pickings on Darwin debut

IT’S pretty chilly down south at this time of year, but former Tasmanian galloper Marbel Duke (Brendon Davis) was red hot at Fannie Bay yesterday.

Making his Darwin debut for the Gary Clarke stable, the four-year-old gelding ($2.70 fav) was most impressive en route to taking out the Signcity Handicap (1100m). It was also back to back wins on the program for Clarke and Davis.

Battling for the lead with Kerry Perick’s Multizone (Felicia Bergstrand), Neil Dyer’s Beau Garcon (Kayla Cross) and Bob Richard’s Niccorossa (Jason Lyon), Marbel Duke ended up sitting on the outside of Beau Garcon ($4) before working his way to the rails.

He was in good shape approaching the turn and in the home straight Marbel Duke found top gear to leave his rivals in his wake.

The horse from the Apple Isle, who boasted pretty ordinary form before heading to the Top End, won by five lengths and is definitely one to keep an eye on for the remainder of the Darwin Cup Carni- val. And how did Clarke end up with a horse from Tasmania?

“I bought him in an online auction for $1500,” he said.

“The crazy thing is that it cost me $2000 to get him to Darwin.

“I thought he would run a decent race today as he trained well, but today’s performance exceeded my expectations.

“He certainly appears to like the dirt track here at Fannie Bay.”

It was one of the more dominating first-up performances in Darwin by Marbel Duke and Davis was suitably impressed as well.

“He did trial well and considering it was his first run at Fannie Bay there was a lot to like in regards to his effort,” he said.

Beau Garcon received a nasty check at around the 700m and although he finished third he was a never going to trouble the winner.

Either was second placed Multizone ($4.80), who produced an honest performance.

Victory for Davis made it 32 wins for the 2016/17 season and it saw him jump three clear of Felecia Bergstrand.