Hot $2.60 favourite Clash Of Kings won last week’s Group 3 Darwin Cup in just his 10th career start, giving semi-retired Gippsland hobby trainer Steve Whyte his biggest win in the sport.

“In the eighties and early nineties I trained a team of more than 30 greyhounds up in Queensland, and had runners in a number of group finals, but never managed to win any of them,” Whyte said.

These days Whyte has a team of just four greyhounds, and in winning the Darwin Cup Clash Of Kings defeated fellow Victorian, the Ricky Ponting-owned Rumbling Rick, to claim the $25,000 first prize.

Craig Sant, who manages the Darwin Greyhound Racing Club as well as calling the greyhound and thoroughbred races, said the 2014 Darwin Racing Carnival was a big success.

“We had almost 600 people at greyhound racing’s Darwin Cup. It’s a great time of year up here and something all racing enthusiasts should experience at least once in their lifetime.”

“The Carnival incorporates six race meetings across nine days including two greyhound race meetings (the Darwin Cup heats and final).”

“There are a host of social functions conducted throughout the carnival including a Breakfast with the Stars and a ball which 3,000 people attended last Saturday night and watched Jimmy Barnes perform,” Sant said.