If Pembrook Playboy wins Saturday’s Ascot Park Hotel Invercargill Cup it will complete a very unusual treble, of sorts.
Nathan Williamson is back with his star pacer after a leg injury cruelly robbed him of a chance to race in November’s New Zealand Cup at Addington. He has not raced since though he has been to the trials and the defending champion is reportedly in great shape ahead of his resumption.
Starting off 20 metres, Pembrook Playboy is currently a $4.80 second favourite behind Alta Wiseguy for the Telfers and driver Tim Williams ($2), who gets a 10 metre head start.
If Pembrook Playboy wins it will cap off a remarkable trio of Group wins, on both sides of the Tasman with two of his former rivals.
At Gore on December 27, 2019 Pembrook Playboy was third in a three-year-old race behind Minstrel and Spirit of St Louis, who both won Group Ones in Australia last weekend.
In Western Australia Minstrel won the Group One $300,000 Fremantle Cup. Trained by David and Catherine Butt and bred by the wider family, Minstrel was sold to Perth interests, and has now won 15 from 29 and is a star out west for the powerful Greg and Skye Bond stables.
A day later Spirit of St Louis completed a hat-trick of Victoria Country Cup wins when he won the Group One Ballarat Cup to go with his earlier wins at Shepparton and Bendigo – beating the likes of Lochinvar Art, Expensive Ego and Amazing Dream in the process.
So could the stars be aligning for Pembrook Playboy tomorrow more than two years after his Southland showdown with Minstrel and Spirit of St Louis?
And do things, as some people think, happen in threes?
We’ll find out at Ascot Park at 4.24pm tomorrow.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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