WIN EARNS GOOD KRUST
IN the shadows of the post, everyone at Fannie Bay held their breath.
So Poysed ($8.50) and Inwood ($14) looked set to fight it out in the $70,000 Hot 100 Darwin Guineas (1600m) — the feature race on Day 1 of the Darwin Cup Carnival.
Suddenly, the top two fancies in the race, Krusty ($3.70) and Billet Doux ($3.10fav), entered the frame as they quite simply motored home.
It was inevitable that it was going to be one of those classic finishes — and that’s how it panned out.
The desperately unlucky So Poysed, from the Richard Laming stable in Cranbourne, was pipped at the post by Krusty, who is trained by someone who is well known around these parts.
Former champion Darwin jockey and trainer Stephen Brown, who has relocated to Flemington as a trainer, was responsible for preparing Krusty for the first leg of the Darwin Turf Club’s famed Triple Crown.
Brown watched the race from his Melbourne home, leaving it to wife Elisha and daughter Alana, a former jockey, to run the operation in Darwin.
It was the first Guineas win for the Brown stable since 2013 when Host The e Party was victorious.
Host The Party then went t on to win the NT Derby, but was deprived of taking out the Triple Crown when the Dar- win Cup meeting was abandoned following the shocking accident that claimed the life of jockey Simone Montgomerie.
Krusty (Paul Denton, pictured) pipped So Poysed (Jason Lyon) by a head, with Kerry Petrick’s Inwood (Felicia Bergstrand) a half-neck away in third place and Sheila Arnold’s Billet Doux (Paul Shiers) a short half-head away in fourth place.
“I didn’t think he had won, I honestly thought that So Poysed had held on until I watched the replay,” Elisha Brown said. “He is such a lovely horse, but I thought he was too far behind until I saw him storming home with 100m to go. Full credit to Dasher (Paul Denton), I left it up to him and in the end he produced the perfect ride.”
To prove what a good win it was by Krusty, he was sitting third last in the 12-horse field along the back straight.
Denton, the former Darwin premiership jockey who now resides in Adelaide, last won the Guineas in 2003 on Edge To Edge.
And he was keen to get the ride on Krusty, who impressed when third behind Sky Muster on debut at Fannie Bay over 1300m on June 24.
“I got back further than I liked, but I wasn’t all that keen to go wide, so I waited for the chance to go inside before get- t ting clear,” he said. “Elisha and A Alana, who normally rides Krusty during trackwork, have done a wonderful job and he sh shouldn’t have any problems in the Derby. “It’s a 2000m race, but he’ll justju sit back and fall asleep.” Laming would have been disappointedd after So Poysed’s narrow loss, but was philosophical after the race. “It was a great run and he lookedlo like the winner with 100m10 to go,” he said. “There’s always tomorrowm and we’ll just see how things go, but if he pulls up well he’ll run in the Derby.” Inwood, who finished second behind Sky Muster on June 24, was among the leaders throughout and stuck it right up So Poysed before Krusty arrived on the scene. After an imposing performance over 1600m on debut on June 24, Billet Doux was racing midfield at the 800m before striking trouble. He suddenly went backwards before regaining his composure, and that moment proved crucial as it may have cost him the race.