Early favourite Hadouken has made it back-to-back wins at the Darwin Cup proving his toughness and grit to the line to claim the 2025 edition of the race.

The Peter Robl trained runner with premiership winning jockey Blake Shinn in the saddle backed up its recent Chief Minister’s Cup tilt in style on the Territory’s biggest stage.

Hadouken has become something of a track specialist in the Top End winning for the fifth time up north.

The runner had to take on the Gary Clarke trained Wolfburn, who had won the early jump and was good for it following a Metric Mile win, but when push came to shove Hadouken crossed first.

Prince Jofra proved an annoyance to the line and was just a half length back for second while the Michael Hickmott trained Motorace finihsed third.

Robl said the horse had the perfect set up through the race with Wolfburn going forward early that allowed Hadouken to play at his own pace.

Throughout the race it was almost as if things were going too well and something would go wrong,” Robl said

“Wolfburn went to the front, Prince Jora annoyed us for awhile but once he got the outside everything just panned out.

“It became a case of if he doesn’t win it, he’s not good enough to, he had ridden it perfectly otherwise.

“He’s just a gritty, tough heavyweight animal, you’ve got to be a good horse to get past him and he proved it.

“He loves Darwin, it gives him a good tough surface, it’s consistent and that’s what he needs.”

Jockey Blake Shinn had a whirlwind visit to the Top End but winning the cup for his great mate Robl made the visit all the more worthwhile.

“It’s not about me, it’s about my great mate Peter, he asked me to come up a few months ago with a long ranged plan for Hadouken to win the cup,” Shinn said.

“The horse travelled really sweetly, he doesn’t like kickback so being outside the leader was a lovely position for him, and about a half mile out I was able to apply a little bit of pressure to the leader.

“This horse is as tough as nails and it was a great win.

“It’s a wonderful carnival. great hospitality and you see a lot of familiar faces, it’s just great to be here and to be able to compete and win this race is what I do my job for.”

Meanwhile, in other racing action Ella Clarke trained the winner in the Simone Montgomerie Lightning Plate, a race that means so much to her family.

Montgomerie was the stable jockey of Ella’s father, Darwin champion trainer Gary Clarke, and someone she looked up to growing up.

However, the jockey tragically died in a race fall on Darwin Cup Day in 2013, an event that shook the racing community and has been marked with the tribute race ever since.

Clarke’s Wild Beau, ridden by Jarrod Todd, was the first runner the young trainer had entered into the race and took the win by one and half lengths over the Robl trained Zourata.

“That race was quite sentimental, to my family and especially to me, I really looked up to Simone while she was with us and it means the world to me to win,” Clarke said.

“It’s great they can still honour this race every year, her family comes up and presents the awards and I’m really happy just to be part of the day with them, it was very emotional for all of us.

“He’s been quite a good horse for me, I purchased him quite cheap and in 10 races has only been out of the money twice and this was his third consecutive win on this track.

“Training is hard work, but days like this when you get those results make it worthwhile, it can be long hours coming into carnival, your life becomes your horses but you’ve got to love what you do.”

Story Courtesy Nathanial Chambers