Anton Marcus urges Night Trip up the outside to nab the evergreen Uncle Tommy late in the race
The Trippi gelding Night Trip notched up a double when he won the R150 000 Listed Darley Arabian for the second year running. The 6yo certainly runs for Anton Marcus, who was aboard again at Greyville on Saturday.
Night Trip had run a cracker when a close up fifth behind Legislate in the Gr1 Gold Challenge at his last start and with his proven aptitude for the polytrack mile, it was not surprising to see him backed into 16-10 favourite. That was despite him being without a win since Super Saturday in 2014.
The grey Stolen Destiny led Big Cat and Uncle Tommy into the home run, with Night Trip some 8 lengths back.
In a typically confident exhibition of precision riding by Marcus, Night Trip was angled out for his run down the outside rail and with plenty of leeway to make up, he produced a sustained finish to grab the evergreen Uncle Tommy and go on to win by 0,25 lengths in a time of 94,04 secs.
Uncle Tommy, who had plenty of weight to carry and a poor draw to contend with, ran a cracker and looked a winner late in the race.
Big Cat was the last ever runner for trainer Stan Elley and was not disgraced as he stayed on for third.
Night Trip was bred by Drakenstein Stud and is by Trippi out of the twice winning Irish bred Machiavellian mare, Pleine Nuit.
A R400 000 National Yearling Sale graduate, he took his stake earnings to R577 980 with his 6 wins and 10 places from 31 starts.
