Wonder mare Captains Mistress is poised to create history from a perfect barrier draw in Saturday night’s Group 1 SEN Victoria Cup at Melton.
No mare has won the Victoria Cup, dubbed the Cox Plate of harness racing, since its inception in 1974.
But such has been Captains Mistress’ splash into the big league, she is $1.15 to re-write the record books.
The four-year-old mare already looked like a standout, then doubled-down with an ideal gate three, which should see her either lead or work to the front soon after the start.
“Perfect. I’m very happy with that,” Captains Mistress’ driver Cam Hart said.
In contrast, the defending champion and main danger, Kingman, drew awkwardly inside the back row (gate eight).
It limits the options his trainer-driver Luke McCarthy has in a race where he really needed to be able to draw to lead and dictate terms to Captains Mistress.
Captains Mistress has been a revelation since coming across from NZ to join Jason Grimson’s Menangle stable late last year. She has raced 14 times for him for 13 wins, five of them at Group 1 level.
It was that epic Brisbane Inter Dominion final on July 18, when Captains Mistress upstaged Leap To Fame, that underlined how special she was.
And she doesn’t have Leap To Fame to deal with this time. He’s skipping the Victoria Cup and will race at Albion Park instead on Saturday night as he prepares for the NZ Cup on November 10.
The enormity of Captains Mistress’ quest to become the first mare to win is underlined by the two modern day great Australasian mares, Blossom Lady and Tailamade Lombo.
They tried unsuccessfully seven times to win the Victoria Cup between them, with Blossom Lady’s second in 1994 and third in 1993 their best results.
In more recent times, Bathurst mare Ameretto ran second to Lennytheshark in 2017.
Hart says history doesn’t faze him.
“No, she’s raced against the boys most times I’ve driven her and she’s so good, it doesn’t really cross my mind she is a girl against the boys,” he said.
“If she keeps racing for another 12 or 18 months, I think she’ll do things we’ve never seen before. I think she’ll be remembered as an all-time great like Leap To Fame rightly is.”
Melton holds no fears for Captains Mistress, either. She won her only start at Victoria’s home of harness by a thumping 24.6m in the Group 1 Queen of the Pacific on February 14.
Mares also dominate the betting after the barrier draw for Saturday night’s other feature, the Group 1 Bill Collins Trotters’ Sprint.
Gatesys Gem opened a $2.60 favourite from gate two ahead of I Am Wilma ($6, gate two) and Rockinwithattitude ($6.50, nine).
