Captains Mistress becomes first mare to win Group 1 Victoria Cup

by Adam Hamilton

Wonder mare Captains Mistress will continue to chase records after her historic win in Saturday night’s (Oct. 17) Group 1 Victoria Cup at Melton.

The stunning 4-year-old daughter of Captaintreacherous became the first mare in the history of the iconic Victoria Cup, first run in 1974, to win the race.

Now her rampaging trainer Jason Grimson wants her to become the first pacer to win Victoria’s $1 million Summer of Glory bonus.

And that means a reshuffle of plans with Captains Mistress over the next few months.

She will go to New Zealand, but not for as long as Grimson had planned.

“She’s booked to fly over next Sunday, but won’t stay as long as we’d talked about,” he said.

Plans to go from Christchurch to chase Group 1 races in Auckland in December have been scrapped.

Captains Mistress’ next race will be in the Kaikoura Cup on Nov. 2, at one of the sport’s most picturesque tracks about three hours north-east of Christchurch and on the edge of the ocean.

They camp at the track for weeks to get a vantage point before the two days of racing.

Spots will be a lot more sought after this year.

There is a chance Captains Mistress could tackle the Group 1 New Zealand free-for-all on Nov. 13 before returning home.

Grimson and owner Mick Boots made the call a couple of months ago not to take on Leap To Fame in the grueling New Zealand Cup over 3,200 meters on Nov. 10.

By scrapping Auckland plans, the mare will have time to return home and freshen-up before chasing the bonus in Victoria.

The Victoria Cup was the first of four qualifying races Captains Mistress needs to win to be alive to land the bonus if she can also add the Group 1 Hunter Cup on Feb. 13.

The other qualifying races are the Bendigo Cup (Jan. 9), Shepparton Gold Cup (Jan. 16), Ballarat Cup (Jan. 23), Cranbourne Gold Cup (Jan. 30), and the Kilmore Cup (Feb. 6).

The Bendigo Cup would seem a lock, given connections would almost certainly want to bypass the standing-start handicap conditions of the Shepparton Cup a week later.

This is the second year of the bonus and, ironically, it was Grimson who thwarted the great Leap To Fame winning it earlier this year when Swayzee upstaged him in the Hunter Cup.

Captains Mistress has been a revelation since joining Grimson’s stable late last year from New Zealand.

This year she’s raced 15 times for 14 wins and a luckless fifth in the Miracle Mile. Six of the wins have been at Group 1 level.

LEAP TO FAME GETS WIN NO. 75, STAYS ON TRACK FOR NEW ZEALAND CUP

Australia’s champion pacer Leap To Fame stayed home instead of making his fourth attempt to win the Victoria Cup.

The rising 8-year-old finished third in 2023 and third again last year, while he was scratched just days before the 2024 Cup with a throat infection.

Trainer/driver Grant Dixon wanted to do all his lead-up racing at home in Brisbane before heading to Christchurch to try and win the iconic New Zealand Cup for the first time.

Leap To Fame cruised to his third win from as many starts this campaign and his 75th from 95 starts at Albion Park last night.

“He’ll have one more here before we head across about a week before the [New Zealand] Cup [Nov. 10],” Dixon said.

I AM WILMA TAKES BILL COLLINS TROTTERS’ SPRINT FOR ALFORD AND LANG, SR.

Two greats of Australian harness racing combined to win the Group 1 Bill Collins Trotters’ Sprint with exciting mare I Am Wilma.

Chris Alford drove a superb race to post his 144th Group 1 win in Australia and land his fifth win in the Bill Collins. His other wins came with Glenbogle (2006), Kyvalley Blur (2013), Maori Time (2016), and Queen Elida (2023).

I Am Wilma is trained by Chris Lang, Sr. and his partner Sonia Mahar.

Lang, Sr. is one of the masters of Down Under trotting and landed his third Bill Collins win. He trained Skyvalley to win in 2009 and the great Sundons Gift in 2010.

He’s won 39 Group 1 races in Australia.

“This is a huge thrill,” Lang, Sr. said. “She hasn’t been the easiest mare to train, but the ability has always been there.”

I Am Wilma’s 1:53.1 mile rate for the 1,720 meters was a race record and not far off The Locomotive’s 1:51.9 track record.

DYNAMITEDAN GIVES EMMA STEWART ANOTHER VICTORIA DERBY VICTORY

Champion trainer Emma Stewart continued her remarkable dominance of the Group 1 Victoria Derby with an upset quinella last night.

Two outsiders of Stewart’s four finalists, Dynamitedan and Mount Barker Boy, stormed home in a brutally run race to give her a fifth Victoria Derby win in the past six years.

And it was leviathan owner Danny Zavitsanos’ third win in the past four years, having scored with Petracca (2023), Fox Dan (last year), and now Dynamitedan.

Zavitsanos gave huge credit to driver James Herbertson, who landed the 15th Group 1 win of his blossoming career.

“Herbie’s the best,” Zavitsanos said. “He’s number one. He’s got lengths on them.”

The race was set for swoopers from back in the field when favorite Palladium had to sit outside the leader and they scorched a :26.7 split down the back straight.

Palladium’s effort to still run a close fifth was enormous.

Stewart also landed the quinella in last night’s Group 1 Victoria Oaks when the untapped Bettor Beach beat Willows Girl with almost 25 meters away to the third-placed Rachels Legacy.

DARYL DOUGLAS DRIVES IJUSTCANTSEEIT TO VICTORY IN VICTORIA TROTTERS’ OAKS

Former dominant driver Daryl Douglas wound back the clock with an upset win aboard Ijustcantseeit in the Group 1 Victoria Trotters’ Oaks.

The 53-year-old Douglas, who boasts almost 4,800 career wins, dominated Australia’s driving ranks in the early 2000s, winning six successive national driving premierships from 2005/06 to 2010/11.

It was his 16th Group 1 win, but his first since winning a Vic-bred trotting final on Revelstoke on Dec. 31, 2022.

Ijustcantseeit stormed home as a $41 outsider (for a $1 bet) to give trainer Rebecca Morrissey her first Group 1 win.

It was a female trifecta with Morrissey training the winner, Tina Ridis training and driving runner-up Hallesbesofine, and Jayne Davies training third place-getter Harperseven.

FIGHTER COMMAND SCRATCHED WITH INJURY

Victoria Cup Night started on a horrible note for top Victoria trainer Jess Tubbs when she had to scratch her stable star Fighter Command from the main event with injury.

A gutted Tubbs revealed Fighter Command, one of Australia’s most exciting pacers, had a suspensory ligament injury.

“It’s a suspensory,” she said. “Six months rehab and see if we can get him back again.”

It’s the latest major blow for a pacer who is special to Tubbs on so many levels.

He is the lasting equine link to her late husband, Greg Sugars, and their project horse.

Fighter Command almost died with a twisted bowel just over two years ago when he was scratched just days before being a major contender in the then $2.1M TAB Eureka.

The rising 6-year-old looked in his prime after winning a heat and running a fantastic fifth in the Brisbane Inter Dominion in July.

Fighter Command has raced just 34 times for 16 wins, seven placings, and almost $320,000 in prize money.