Victorians won’t have to wait long to see wonder mare Captains Mistress again.
Trainer Jason Grimson declared chasing the $1 million Summer of Glory bonus was the next big target.
He is even considering cutting short her NZ raid and bypassing Friday night’s Group 1 Christian Cullen at Addington, a race Kingman won last year.
“We want to have a real crack at the bonus, so she’ll go to Bendigo for the next race (in the series),” Grimson said.
Captains Mistress won the leg of the revamped series, the Group 1 Victoria Cup, last month.
“She won’t go to Shepparton because she’ll get 30m or something like that,” Grimson said.
That means if Captains Mistress wins Bendigo, where she will be a $1.20 favourite or shorter, she will have to win another two qualifying legs plus the Hunter Cup to get the bonus.
Those options are the $100,000 Group 2 Ballarat Cup on January 23, $150,000 Group 1 Cranbourne Cup (January 30) and the $150,000 Group 1 Kilmore Cup (February 6).
In her favour, Leap To Fame and Kingman are very unlikely to run in anything before the Kilmore Cup.
Simply, it now looks extremely likely Captains Mistress will do what Leap To Fame did and go into the Hunter Cup needing to win to snag the bonus.
It was Captains Mistress’s stablemate Swayzee who denied Leap To Fame the bonus early this year.
Given the Hunter Cup is a target again for Leap To Fame, and the distance suits him, he looks the biggest hurdle to Captains Mistress banking the big bucks.
In trotting ranks, emerging Kiwi mare Dash Dosh is set for an extended Victorian campaign, capped by the Great Southern Star.
Dash Dosh, who boasts seven wins and five placings from her 25 starts, has already shown her class in Australian with a second in the Group 1 Great Square on July 4.
“She’s a real mobile mare and there’s plenty of suitable races over there for her,” trainer Tom Bagrie said.
“She also loves genuinely run races, the Aussies seem to do that more regularly and really suit her.”
Dash Dosh showed she was on target with a close-up fourth in last Friday’s Group 1 NZ Trotting free-for-all at Addington.
Queensland star Gus definitely won’t be heading to Victoria.
But Victorian pair Rockinwithattitude and Gotfeelingsyouknow will return home and get ready for the string of races, starting with the Group 1 Maori Mile at Bendigo on January 9.
“I toyed with taking her up north (Auckland) for a couple of races, but we’ll get her back home now,” Rockinwithattitude’s trainer-driver David Miles said.
The Aussie raid isn’t over yet in New Zealand.
A string of Aussie stars will chase four of the feature races at Friday’s night’s NZ Cup Carnival finale at Addington.
Wonder mare Captains Mistress will headline the assault when she tackles the Group 1 Christian Cullen, a race won by Kingman last year.
Queensland Derby winner Palladium and emerging Victorian Luvtobeuptome, an impressive lead-up winning at Addington last Friday, will chase the $200,000 Group 1 NZ Pacing Derby.
In the Group 1 Pacing Oaks, we will have NSW stars Ark Sea and Ripples.
Switch to the trotters and Brent Lilley’s Kyvalley Ray and classy Queensland filly Raffie Jay will tackle the Group 1 NZ Trotters’ Derby.
