Promising filly Captainshavtime (Captain Crunch) produced a remarkable performance in harness racing to win the Retravision, Why Shop Anywhere Else Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday evening, when she swung sideways in the early stages of the scoring and was at least 100 meters behind her nine rivals as they passed the mobile barrier.
“She had no right to win, but she’s just so tough,” said her driver Deni Roberts after the New Zealand-bred three-year-old, at odds of $7.30, beat Our Rich Cargo ($9.50) and the $1.45 favorite Fakenit.
“She climbed the shuffleboard post, did a spin and then did a lot of work to catch up with the fence.”
Not only did Captainshavtime expend a tremendous amount of energy to get behind the mobile barrier at the release point, but she charged straight to the front and gave a bold lead, winning at a speed of 1.55.7 over 2130 metres.
“After a run time of 37.3 seconds and a first quarter of 30 seconds, she ran the next quarter in 27.4 seconds,” Roberts said. “She hadn’t had a breather, so I said, ‘Oh well, we’ve gone this far, we might as well keep going’ and the filly stormed over the last 800 meters in 58.4 seconds. She could easily have lost 100 meters in the score-up, maybe more.”
Fakenit, a dazzling winner of the WA Oaks a fortnight earlier, was not cleared from the outside barrier (No. 9) at the front line and was last at the bell before finishing decisively in third.
CAPTAIN HAVTIME REPEAT
Captainshavtime is by American sire Captain Crunch and is the first foal of Betterthanbrie, who raced 44 times for five wins, 12 placings and $50,897. She won once from three starts in New Zealand, and her 16 starts in WA for leading trainers Greg and Skye Bond have produced seven wins and three placings, taking her career record to 19 starts for eight wins, four placings and $100,195.
Captainshavtime is played by Team Bond and Murray Little, the filly’s breeder. She was accepted into the 2023 New Zealand National Standard Breed Sale after failing to reach her reserve price of $25,000.
Friday night’s victory meant a treble for the Bond camp and for Roberts, who had been successful earlier in the evening with Tualou and Bettor Fortune.
Tualou was given a $20.70 chance from barrier seven in the $27,000 Electrolux Golden Nugget Prelude, in which he surged from seventh to move into the front at home and win by a length from Im Lightning Banner ($19), rated 1.56.1 over 2.536m.
This was a milestone for Roberts: her 100th win of the season, after 201 wins in 2023 and 172 in 2024.
“Tualou can put in some work in his races, and this was a perfect run-in for the Nugget,” Roberts said. “A few things went wrong with him, but I think he’s back on track now.”
Tualou is a son of Sweet Lou and is the second foal from Mach Three mare Ask Again. Raced by her breeders Les and Marion Pettifer and Greg Bond, she has had 21 starts for nine wins, four placings and $105,450 in prize money.
For full race results, click here.
Through Ken Casellasfor Gloucester Park
#Notable #winning #series #Captainshavtime