Zac Spain ready to take aim at darts world champion Shane ‘The Arrow’ McGuirk after riding at Flemington

A double at Flemington would be fitting for Zac Spain before the dart-loving jockey takes on world champion Shane McGuirk in an exhibition tournament on Saturday night.

Darting jockey Zac Spain has sights on a Saturday double-header.

Spain has two rides at Flemington before a darts match-up in St Kilda with WDF World Champion Shane “The Arrow” McGuirk.

“Zachariah the Electrifier” Spain won an event in March to qualify for the dream date with McGuirk.

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McGuirk, in Melbourne as part of an exhibition darts Australian tour, has 14 opponents to face on Saturday night at St Kilda Sports Club.

“I’ll be a lot more nervous than he’ll be,” Spain said.

“Hopefully I can bring him down to my level … that would be nice!

“You play the board, not the person in front of you.

“Play your own game and not worry too much about what the other person is scoring.

“Darts is 90 per cent mental, 10 per cent physical … if you go into a game thinking you can’t beat that player you’ve lost it before you even go up to the board.”

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Spain reached the quarter-final and round of 16 last month in a three-day DartPlayers Australia event.

Missed doubles proved costly against Australia’s best throwers.

“I had chances to go further but I let the nerves get the better of me, to be honest,” Spain said.

“I missed doubles to win some games … my scoring was really good, in all of those games, and it was just the doubles that let me down.”

The Group 1 jockey has sharpened up since, with practice and club competition play.

Spain won a Darts Victoria event, the Andrew Coburn Graded Challenge, on June 29.

Spain improved to 40 per cent doubles strike rate at the event – double his normal average.

“Normally I’m 20 per cent on the doubles, just absolutely horrible,” Spain said.

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“The practice I was doing at home showed up in the graded challenge and ended up going out with the win, I think I averaged 77 overall, 95 in the quarter-final and 84 in the semi-final.

“Ninety-five average (semi-final), I haven’t done that over three legs ever, not in tournament anyway.

“I went to DPA (Albury event) to test myself and when I held my own against some of those players I shocked myself, I’m driving to get better and keep practising.

“The only way to get better is going to these tournaments and having a crack … the best experience you can get is match-day experience.

“For me it’s an outlet from racing and gets my mind off racing, racing consumes your life and you can get caught up in it, darts is a good outlet for me to clear my head.”

A Flemington double to start Saturday would be ideal, with Spain aboard Great Maximus ($11) and Euphoric ($14) in respective races.

Euphoric struggled at Caulfield last start, but is expected to improve on the bigger track and down in weight.

The consistent gelding has raced at Flemington eight times for a win and two places.

Great Maximus placed fourth last start at Flemington.

“He overdid it a bit, I think he’s better suited at 1200m,” Spain said.

Originally published as Zac Spain ready to take aim at darts world champion Shane ‘The Arrow’ McGuirk after riding at Flemington