DEFIANCE DESTROYS THEM AT CANBERRA
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Darby Racing 4.9.2026
Defiance broke through in devastating fashion at Canberra yesterday, putting his rivals away by more than four lengths and vindicating the decision to send the talented gelding to Canberra trainer Luke Pepper.
The four-year-old son of Zoustar had always shown us ability. His two trial wins earlier this year were evidence of that, but after four starts in metropolitan and provincial company without breaking his maiden, we felt something needed to change.
Sometimes with horses, you have to be prepared to think outside the square.
We made the call to move Defiance from Bjorn Baker's metropolitan stable and send him to Luke Pepper in Canberra, believing a change of environment and a different approach could be exactly what he needed.
Luke has done an outstanding job with this horse.
To take over a horse who had been beaten at his previous four starts and produce him first-up to win by 4.17 lengths is a tremendous training performance. More importantly, Defiance didn't just win, he destroyed them.
Starting from the outside barrier nine over 1000 metres on a Soft 7, Defiance travelled strongly for jockey Brodie Loy, moved into the race with purpose and then put the contest away emphatically, stopping the clock at 59.10.
It was the performance of a horse who clearly has more wins ahead of him.
A huge amount of credit also has to go to Brodie Loy.
Brodie has put plenty of work into Defiance behind the scenes and that work showed yesterday. He knows the horse extremely well, understood exactly what Luke wanted from him and gave him a confident ride. When it was time to ask Defiance for his effort, the response was immediate.
Luke and Brodie have really clicked with this horse and yesterday was the reward for all the work they have put in.
I also want to particularly congratulate and thank our ownership group.
There have been some frustrating moments with Defiance because we have always believed there was ability there. When I recommended that we make the change and send him away from a city stable to Luke Pepper in Canberra, the owners backed my judgement and were prepared to be patient.
That isn't always easy.
They could have questioned the move, particularly taking a well-bred Zoustar gelding away from the metropolitan environment, but they trusted the process, followed my lead and gave Luke and his team the opportunity to work the horse out.
Yesterday they got their reward.
This is a great example of why sometimes a change of environment can make all the difference. It isn't necessarily about one trainer being better than another, it is about finding the right environment and the right formula for an individual horse.
For Defiance, Luke Pepper and Canberra might just be that formula.
Congratulations to Luke and his entire team on a fantastic job, to Brodie Loy for the work he has put into the horse and a massive congratulations to our patient ownership group.
They stuck with him, backed the decision and now have a very exciting horse to look forward to.
Six starts into his career, Defiance is now a winner, and judging by the way he put them away yesterday, we don't think it will be his last.
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