One of the most impressive winners on the weekend was Playaction. It was great to see him win for a couple of the nice guys of racing in David and Kristie Peoples who train out of the Sunshine Coast.
Playaction is by Cape Cross and competed well as a three year old in the major staying races over the winter carnival. Both lead up runs to the Derby were good, an unlucky fourth and a handy sixth before tailing out in the Derby. The horse has come back a treat this time in and looked very good in beating Hidden Kisses the other day.
I caught up with David Peoples to see what he made of the win and thoughts on how far Playaction could go this prep. “I was pretty impressed the way he beat Hidden Kisses. He beat some handy horses, but the impressive thing was that he kicked away from them. He’s pulled up well and ate up everything. He will go to the 1800m Magic Millions cup, and I will see how he comes through that before I make the next decision.”
David also mentioned that the son of Cape Cross will most likely get up to 2000m again this time in as he feels that is his best distance. “He’s starting to really look like a stayer and is still maturing, so I think we will probably still see the best of him next campaign.”
In my opinion one of the biggest assets I can see is that Playaction can just put himself in a great position on pace in almost any race, and importantly has a nice kick off almost any pace which is rare to find in middle distance/staying horses. I mentioned that to David and he agreed with the summary but added if things were to go wrong at the start it wouldn’t matter as the horse just relaxes no matter what the circumstances are. That’s a big plus!
It looks as though the Magic Millions stayers race may be one of the better ones we have seen for a while with horses like Playaction, Femina Fashion, Emvoss, Kontiki Park and a few others all looking like pushing on.
Although Playaction is the ‘flag bearer’ at the moment, there are some nice younger horses that they feel can measure up down the track. Playground Princess is the half-sister to Playaction (by Royal Academy) and has had a trial and went well, but since been given a break. Black Monty is another who may pop up over the next couple of weeks. Black Banner won a race on Sunday, but David said she is a nightmare to work with as she has a lot of little tricks, but believes she is a nice galloper.
