Making his twentieth start in a stakes race, in Saturday's Listed Cyril Flower Stakes at Ascot, the five-year-old Playing God gelding Platoon had just a Listed win as a three-year-old to show for his efforts.
That came at the expense of the future All-Star Mile and Group 1 Railway Stakes hero in the Listed JC Roberts Stakes (1800m) at Ascot in March 2019.
So, there were plenty of cheers when Stephen Parnham launched Platoon from last to first in Saturday's feature at Ascot.
"He has a few little quirks, but he is enjoying his training at the moment, and he has been jumping out of his skin the last couple of days," winning trainer Neville Parnham said.
"I lost a little confidence when the on-pace runners were winning earlier in the day, but class came through in the end.
"The pace was on and from the 600m onwards I thought he was trucking up well and I was actually confident at that point because I know how well he can get home, especially when his fresh.
"I'm not sure where we go from here. My plans were to put him on a plane and send him to Melbourne to run in the Blamey (Stakes) in a couple of weeks, but it won't be easy getting him there now with the Covid situation. We might finish up in a Pinjarra classic or something like that."
Platoon advances his record to five wins, five seconds and eight thirds from 31 starts with earnings of $606,459.
Platoon was a graduate of the same sale back in 2017 when his trainer had to shell out just $27,000.
Platoon is the best of two winners from four to race out of the winning Oratorio (AUS) mare Oriel a half-sister to the WATC Magic Millions 2YO winner and Group 1 Fruit 'n' Veg Stakes runner-up Lock The Vault who was a stakes-winner in Hong Kong when known as Gallant Moon.
Oriel has a colt foal by Playing God and was covered by Wat Chant (USA) last year.
