Exciting speedster Captain Ravishing is back in WA, and he will begin a campaign aimed at the $450,000 WA Pacing Cup on December 12 when he contests the $31,000 We Love Our Members Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The New South Wales-bred five-year-old is now in the care of vastly experienced trainer-reinsman Lindsay Harper, who welcomed him into his stables seven weeks ago.
Captain Ravishing, the most exciting pacer in Australia two years ago, has amassed $655,110 in prizemoney from his 13 wins and seven placings from 31 starts.
He will be making his first appearance for 14 weeks --- since trailing the pacemaker and finishing a well-beaten fourth behind Don Hugo in the 1609m Golden Mile at Menangle on June 14.
“Captain Ravishing has gone from being one of the most promising horses in Australia to being a bit lost,” said Harper, who is the fifth person to have trained the stallion.
“He is a lovely horse, and I really like him. He is beautiful to work with, but I can’t predict whether he can win on Friday night. It’s a learning phase for me.”
Captain Ravishing began from the outside barrier in a 2150m five-horse trial at Byford last Saturday morning when he was restrained back to last, ten lengths behind the frontrunning Fleur Du Marquis.
Harper eased Captain Ravishing off the pegs with about 800m to travel and the horse quickly moved to the breeze and was not driven out in finishing second, one length from the winner, Fleur Du Marquis, who rated 1.59 after final quarters of 29.9sec., 29.4sec. and 28.6sec.
“He overraced fairly badly and pulled up big in condition,” said Harper, who celebrated his 66TH birthday on Wednesday. “But I’m sure he will run a race this week, even though I don’t know his likes and dislikes. I rang Clayton Tonkin (who trained Captain Ravishing in partnership with Emma Stewart when the horse had ten starts for them in 2022 and 2023 for seven wins, one second and two unplaced efforts) and we spoke for half an hour two days ago.
“Clayton gave me a few tips about what the horse likes and doesn’t like. This is all a learning curve for me.”
Captain Ravishing impressed with his sparkling speed when he raced three times at Gloucester Park late last year. At his first WA appearance, on November 1, he won the group 3 Navy Cup when he began from barrier five and enjoyed an ideal passage, one-out and one-back, before winning by a length from To Fast To Serious, rating 1.55.3 over 2130m. Following home the first two placegetters were quality pacers Steno, Swingband and Jawsoflincoln.
A week after that Captain Ravishing finished fourth behind Minstrel, Mister Smartee and Mighty Ronaldo in the 2536m WA Pacing Cup, and three weeks later he raced without cover when a fighting second to Jawsoflincoln (1.52.9) in a 1730m Free-For-All.
Captain Ravishing, who will start from the No. 3 barrier on Friday night, will clash again with Mister Smartee, who will begin from the outside barrier in the field of eight.
Mister Smartee, an equine millionaire trained by Gary Hall snr and driven by Gary Hall jnr, resumed last Friday night after a four-month absence when he began from barrier five in the 2536m Howard Porter Memorial and raced without cover over the final 1300m and finished a well-beaten fourth behind the frontrunning Magnificent Storm.
“Mister Smartee went pretty good in the breeze,” said Hall jnr. “However, this won’t be a walk in the park, but you would like to think that his class will get him there (winning).”
Adding interest to the race will be the reappearance after spells of top-flight mare Penny Black (barrier five) and Swingband (barrier seven), as well as Lusaka, who will start from barrier six at his first appearance for four weeks.
Lusaka, trained by Greg and Skye Bond, will be handled by Deni Roberts, who said that the New Zealand-bred five-year-old was capable of a strong showing. “He finished second to Magnificent Storm two starts ago and is going well enough to figure,” said Roberts. “We don’t have the best draw but, hopefully, they’ll go silly, and Lusaka will run over the top.”
