Potiris after second Cairns Amateur Cup with Play Me Now

By Glenn Davis

Innisfail hobby trainer Stephen Potiris is hopeful a significant weight turnaround can help deliver him a second Cairns Amateur Cup with Play Me Now at Cannon Park on Saturday.

Play Me Now is coming off a last start second to the Ricky Vale-trained Namazu in the Cairns Cup over 2100 metres last Saturday.

“His Cairns Cup run was very good and I thought he’d run a big race even though he wasn’t in the market,” Potiris said.

“My bloke will stay all day and he’s very fit.”

Namazu, who also won the Townsville Cup at his previous start earlier in the carnival, will carry top weight with 59kgs on Saturday while the remainder of the field are all on the minimum of 54kgs.

“We’ve got a three-kilogram advantage on Namazu this time but I’ll leave it up to the weight experts whether that’s enough to beat him,” Potiris said.

“Namazu is a smart horse and does everything right.

“I’ve given my bloke an easy time since the Cairns Cup and I’ve tried to keep him as fresh as possible for this.”

Potiris won his only Cairns Amateur Cup with Junee Boy in 2014.

He trains in semi-retirement and is on the comeback trail after smashing his hip in a track accident at Cluden Park in April.

“A horse at Cluden Park took me for a ride one day in April and I broke my hip,” he said.

“I’m just starting to get back to the track full time now after help from my daughter Maria, who also has her own trainers’ licence.

“Maria will eventually take over from me when I retire."

Potiris turns 60 in November.

Potiris still works two jobs and is often seen driving his taxi around Innisfail after completing track work duties.

“I’m still driving a taxi as well as training the horses,” he said.

“I started off driving a cab in 1988 at Innisfail then I sold it and bought two cafes.

“I was in one café for 18 years and a couple of years with the other one.

“I gave the café business away in 2005 when the opportunity arose to buy a few horses and I bought my second taxi in 2012.”

Potiris has trained some good horses during his career but there’s one stand out among them.

“Strictly Smart was the best horse I’ve trained,” he said.

“He won the Cleveland Bay in 2003 and I took him to Brisbane where he won three races and he also ran third in the Pago Pago in Sydney.”

The son of Strictly Ballroom, Strictly Smart started 60 times for 27 wins and 18 thirds and earned more than $340,000 in prize money.