What’s next for Captains Mistress following Brisbane Inter Dominion victory?

Fans want to know if the 4-year-old mare will take on pacing giant Leap To Fame again in the near future.

by Adam Hamilton

Superstar Victorian driver Kate Gath raised perhaps the most relevant point after brilliant young mare Captains Mistress upstaged the boys, headed by the great Leap To Fame, in the recent $1 million Brisbane Inter Dominion final.

Gath, herself a passionate marathon runner, talked of defying basic biology to be able to do what Captains Mistress, a relative “baby” girl at just 4, compared to the strong and seasoned 7-year-old brute of Leap To Fame.

“Biologically she shouldn’t have been able to beat him, but she’s so damn freakish she did,” Gath posted on social media in the moments after the record-breaking win.

Gath would know, having been at the front of the female pack, but well behind the men in a string of marathons, including New York a few years ago.

“What a shame there could only be one winner,” she said of that epic Inter Dominion final. “Larry [Leap To Fame] was spine-tingling, but don’t forget Captains Mistress in only a 4-year-old mare. Her run was an astonishing effort to take a full second off the track record and beat him.

“It’s the greatest race I’ve seen and we should all feel lucky to have witnessed the sheer greatness of these two athletes.”

History also shows the enormity of Captains Mistress’ achievement.

She is just the sixth mare to win the pacing final since the Inter Dominion was first run in 1936 and the first since Jodie’s Babe 37 years ago in Perth (in 1989). The others were: Bandbox (1947), Robin Dundee (1965), Richmond Lass (1969), and Stella Frost (1971).

Dig further, and she joined Jodie’s Babe as the only 4-year-old mares to win it.

Further again, and in those 37 years since Jodie’s Babe’s win, only two mares have even finished top three. The great Kiwi champion Blossom Lady ran third twice in 1992 and ’93, and another Kiwi mare Foreal ran third in 2007.

None of that factors in the amazing reality that Captains Mistress beat Leap To Fame, who is widely regarded as the best pacer Australasian has produced.

Even Leap To Fame’s leviathan owner Kevin Seymour, who desperately wanted a third Inter Dominion title for his champion, was in awe of Captains Mistress’ performance.

“There wasn’t even the slightest tinge of deflation, how could there be after a run like that?” he said.

“We were extremely proud of him [Leap To Fame] for overcoming the obstacles he faced, coming from last and running a close second in a record time like that.

“To hear the crowd stand and cheer for him in the home straight and then give him a standing ovation as he returned to the stables [after the race], as an owner it makes you proud to be a Queenslander.

“Two great horses competing after such a hyped build-up and then to deliver a contest like that, I’m biased because I love the sport, but it’s the greatest thing I’ve witnessed for the development of harness racing. What a spectacle they put on.

“We got beaten by a champion mare who broke 37 years of history and deserves all the accolades, I couldn’t be happier for her owner, Mick Boots, who has poured so much into harness and has earned moments like that.

“It was a fitting result to one of the greatest races of all time.”

Boots, Australasia’s biggest owner with over 300 horses, emailed Seymour after the race, acknowledging Leap To Fame’s enormous run in defeat.

“He [Leap To Fame] is the best horse in the world,” Boots said. “To be able to get as close as he did after the bad luck he had in the first lap was amazing.

“Wouldn’t it make a good foal from those two [Leap To Fame and Captains Mistress]?

“He deserved to win, but in saying that, there’s very few horses who would have held him off when he came at the mare in the last 150 meters or so. Maybe my other great stayer, Swayzee, might be the only other one.

“She went incredibly well, too. She’s a freakish mare and that’s my biggest thrill in the game.

“The Inter Dominion is the race everybody dreams of winning and to beat Leap To Fame to do it makes her win even more incredible.”

The Down Under thoroughbred equivalent would be a 3-year-old filly beating the boys in the iconic Cox Plate, which has only happened once (Surround in 1976) since the race was first run in 1922.

But even that’s not fair because 3-year-old fillies, or all mares for that matter, get a decided weight advantage over their male rivals under the weight-for-all scale.

For context, very few female pacers in North America have, or even try, to beat the boys.

A few recent examples Harness Racing Update colleague Deborah Little reminded me of were 3-year-old Party Girl Hill, who won a division of the Tattersalls at Lexington in the same year Tall Dark Stranger won the other.

So Much More beat the boys in some free-for-alls at Mohawk.

Loua Dipa was a current example in the Adios and may go on to the Little Brown Jug as opposed to racing the girls in the Jugette.

There was talk of megastar mares like Shartin and Test Of Faith (Dan Patch Horses of the Year in 2019 and 2021, respectively) taking on the boys, but they never did.

A lack of feature races and appropriate prize money for mares pushes the very best of them to race the boys Down Under, so we will see more of it with Captains Mistress.

Boots, who loves his breeding, had planned to retire the mare at the end of this season, but has been swayed to go at least another season of racing by trainer Jason Grimson.

“He makes a good point, she’s proven herself now and she could earn at least another $800,000 on the track even if we are selective with what races we target,” Boots said.

What everyone is waiting for is the rematch with Leap To Fame.

The score line is 1-1 after Captains Mistress was driven conservatively and had no racing room at a crucial stage when fifth to Leap To Fame in the $1 million Miracle Mile back on March 14.

“Oh, I knew that question was coming,” Boots said. “I can’t say for sure when it will happen. There is talk about it being in the New Zealand Cup [Nov. 10], but I don’t think that’s a suitable race for the mare over 3,200 meters.

“I don’t want her going there, but there are some other races in New Zealand she could target, it’s just whether Leap To Fame would be in any of them.”

Captains Mistress is having a month out spelling now with a view to the $250,000 Group 1 Victoria Cup at Melton on Oct. 17 as her next major target.

But Leap To Fame won’t be in that.

So, trying to align things, the Group 1 Hunter Cup at Melton in February or the Group 1 Miracle Mile at Menangle in March would look the most likely next meeting of the sport’s two best pacers.

While Captains Mistress’ driver Cam Hart oozes respect for Leap To Fame, he can’t wait for round three… and four and five.

“Maybe it’s the competitor in me, but I loved that race,” Hart said. “It’s as pumped as I’ve been going into a race and as excited as I’ve been after one.

“It was her last 100 meters or so that really got me. That’s when it came down to whether she wanted to dig and win, to show she was a champion, and she did.

“What excites me most is that I think there are a few ways I can drive her to beat him.

“I had the draw and did it from the front and sort of went toe-to-toe with him the other night, but she’s so fast, I think I can follow him and have a great chance of beating him for sheer speed, too.

“It’s a great time, not just for me with this mare, but for the sport. Hopefully they meet quite a few more times before one or both retire.”