South Australian Derby 2023 Results: Dunkel Breaks Promises

The Patrick Payne-trained Dunkel rallied late returning to winning form with an exciting victory in Adelaide’s 2023 South Australian Derby results on Saturday.

2023 SA Derby winner Dunkel (pictured in Melbourne) was given a perfectly timed ride to win the Group 1 in Adelaide. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.

The Dundeel gelding was in super form over the summer stringing together four wins on the trot including Hobart’s Listed Tasmanian Derby (2200m).

He resumed on March 18 at The Valley when unplaced in the Group 2 Alister Clark Stakes (2040m) before bouncing back getting out over further in the Group 1 $500,000 South Australian Derby (2500m).

It was a terrific training performance by the Plumpton-based Payne, winner of the 1994 SA Derby as a jockey aboard the Mick Kent-trained Bullwinkle, who had the horse spot on fresh off a two-month let-up to hand him his maiden Group 1 trophy as a trainer.

Dunkel was given a perfectly-timed ride by jockey Billy Egan who also celebrated his first Group 1 success in the saddle.

“It’s good to get the monkey off the back,” Egan told Racing.com after the important elite level victory.

The well-backed Promises Kept having his first run for the Ciaron Maher & David Eustace stable looked like saluting for the punters leading all-the-way before being denied victory the closing stages by the fast-finishing Dunkel.

Promises Kept got out to lead the field around in the 149^th edition of the time-honoured event and gave a lovely kick on the straight hitting another gear with 300m then 200m to go.

Egan on the eventual SA Derby winner however was able to reel in the favourite having worked up into fourth approaching the home turn after getting shuffled back earlier in running.

Dunkel ($8) rallied late and exploded inside the final 50m to defeated Promises Kept ($4F) by three-quarters of a length with Aberfeldie Boy ($10) two lengths off the winner in third.

“We had to work our way through them,” Egan said.

“He’s got that sort of killer instinct. Every horse out there he wants to pass and that’s what he did.

“The further we got into the straight the harder my bloke tried and, as I said, when he sees a horse in front of him, he wants to pass it.”

2023 South Australian Derby Results & Finishing Order

Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Starting Price
1	3	DUNKEL (NZ)	Patrick Payne	Billy Egan		7	56.5kg	$8
2	9	PROMISES KEPT	Ciaron Maher & David Eustace	Mark Zahra	0.7L	8	56.5kg	$4F
3	2	ABERFELDIE BOY	Robbie Griffiths & Mathew de Kock	Craig Newitt	2.2L	13	56.5kg	$10
4	7	LOCO	Mick Price & Michael Kent (Jnr)	Damien Oliver	2.3L	12	56.5kg	$10
5	6	BENGAL BOY	Matt Cumani	Declan Bates	2.6L	6	56.5kg	$61
6	5	RED SUN SENSATION	Peter G Moody	Brian Higgins	4L	9	56.5kg	$26
7	4	HIGH APPROACH	Dan O’Sullivan	John Allen	5.8L	4	56.5kg	$12
8	14	RESERVOIR DOG	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	Jake Toeroek	6.1L	11	56.5kg	$91
9	13	NORTHERN BARRAGE	Michael Kent	Jason Holder	6.1L	5	56.5kg	$26
10	16	SHE’S FIT	Daniel Morton	Chris Parnham	6.5L	10	54.5kg	$4.20
11	1	SUIZURO	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	Opie Bosson	7.2L	16	56.5kg	$8
12	12	CAPTAIN PLUTO (NZ)	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	Daniel Moor	8.9L	1	56.5kg	$91
13	15	PRINCE TIKEA	Travis Doudle	Dom Tourneur	9.3L	2	56.5kg	$151
14	8	GOTTABESAVVY (NZ)	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	Todd Pannell	9.8L	15	56.5kg	$61
15	11	DUNWOODY (NZ)	Matt Cumani	Jarrod Fry	11.8L	3	56.5kg	$81
16	10	AIN’T HE GRAND	Ciaron Maher & David Eustace	Ben Allen	33.4L	14	56.5kg	$41
	19e	IMPENDING LINK	Greg Eurell			0
	20e	SAMUEL LANGHORNE (NZ)	Michael Kent			0
	17e	XTRAREVZ	John Sargent	Kerrin McEvoy		0
	18e	NIGHTSUN	Robbie Griffiths & Mathew de Kock			0