Captain’s commanding victory nice wedding anniversary gift for Todd
THE Captain is such a brave horse who loves racing so much, that he wouldn’t have known he was carrying a whopping 65.5kg yesterday.
The extra burden for his success did not slow down the champion eight-year-old, who led for most of the race-three feature $20,500 Silks Darwin
Handicap (1100m), prevailing by 1 ½ lengths over Tayarn Halter’s promising four-yearold Shift The Risk. Pre-race talk centred on the fact Shift The Risk could pose a challenge for the reigning two-time Horse of the Year winner in the renowned Gary Clarke stable. But The Captain is a marvel who lives for race days.
And he is a winner, with weight rarely an issue for him.
“He just loves racing and that’s his job at this time of the year,” co-trainer Sharlene Clarke told the Sunday Territorian.
“Shift The Risk is no slouch. But The Captain doesn’t even know he carries that weight, and (I wasn’t worried) because he carried that weight (when he won the $25,000 Lexus of
Darwin Weight-For-Age 1200m by an incredible six lengths on November 3).
“He’s still in trackwork and his next race will probably be the weight-for-age one in January.”
Star jockey Jarrod Todd was aboard The Captain, as well as the other Clarke winner Manly Cove, who took out the $18,500 Hygain Winners
Handicap (1000m). “It was Jarrod’s 11th wedding anniversary, so it was a nice bonus for him. He’s just a great man and a great jockey,” Clarke said.
Other winning horses yesterday were Mr Boomjangles (trainer Garry Lefoe, jockey Vanessa Arnott), El Sicario (Pat Johnston, Wayne Davis) and Fashionetti (Emma Steel, Stan Tsaikos).