Big NZ Cup implications across the Tasman this weekend

By Adam Hamilton 

It is the most defining weekend yet in the build-up to the Go Media New Zealand Trotting Cup and it spans three major Aussie meetings on Saturday night.

The superstars who step-out include Leap To Fame, Swayzee, Kingman and Minos.

And then there is Captains Mistress, who is also bound for NZ, albeit not the Cup itself.

Let’s start with Captains Mistress, who is first-up since beating Leap To Fame in that amazing Inter Dominion final at Albion Park on July 18.

She’s got the pole under the preferential draw on sex and will dominate betting in Saturday night’s 2300m AD Turnbull free-for-all at Menangle.

“It wasn’t planned to target this race, but it has worked out well with the draw,” trainer Jason Grimson told SENTrack.

“She should be leading and winning first-up from the draw (gate one),” Grimson said.

“She’s very forward and could’ve gone straight into a Victoria Cup, she’s that well. She’ll certainly only have this one run before it.

“I think Cam (Hart, driver) would be really keen to use the draw to lead and hold the front this week.”

Captains Mistress’ major rival is last year’s Victoria and NZ Cup winner Kingman (gate four).

“He’d need to improve a lot on his first-up run to test her, especially from the draw,” Grimson said.

Kingman got back to last and made some late ground without doing anything startling when eighth at his first run back from a spell at Menangle two weeks ago.

This is something of a D-Day for him with the Victoria Cup two weeks away.

Leap To Fame should make it two wins in as many weeks when he stretches from last week’s huge 1660m win to 2138m for the Wolf Signs Free-For-All against six rivals, including three stablemates on Saturday night at Albion Park.

Owner Kevin Seymour has quelled speculation about the Victoria Cup.

“No, Grant wants him to have three more lead-up runs for NZ up here in Queensland this time before he heads across,” he said.

“We were thrilled with his win last week and clearly he’s come back as good as ever.”

Back to Grimson’s team and he launches his Victorian raid earlier than expected with Swayzee and Minos in Saturday night’s Geelong Cup.

Both are slated for NZ Cup starts.

Geelong is a forerunner to Grimson having a possible five of the 12 runners in the Group 1 Victoria Cup at Melton on October 17.

“I’ll be nominating five horses and if ‘Jeff’ (Hi Manameisjeff) runs well Saturday night (at Menangle), I’d like to run them all in the Victoria Cup,” Grimson said.

Joining Swayzee and Minos amongst his nominations will be Inter Dominion winner Captains Mistress, the brilliant Dangerous and Hi Manamejeff.

Dangerous won brilliantly first-up at Menangle last Saturday night, while Captains Mistress and Hi Manameisjeff clash at Menangle this Saturday.

With Cam Hart staying in Sydney to drive Captains Mistress, Grimson will drive either Minos or Swayzee at Geelong.

He had hoped James Herbertson would drive one of them, but he was committed to the Australian Drivers’ Championship series in Adelaide that night.

“Now I’ve seen the draws, I might drive Minos,” Grimson said. “I drove him myself through the Inter Dominion and he’ll be very hard to beat from that draw.”

Minos will be favourite from gate five, while Swayzee has the back row (gate nine) and is first-up since some injury issues in May.

“Swayzee would need to improve on his trials, but I drove himself in the latest trial and he showed good signs,” he said. “I brought him down because he needs racing and a trip can also help bring them on.

“This will help decide whether we go to the Victoria Cup with him.”

Grimson is also hopeful Swayzee will prove himself worthy of chasing a record third NZ Cup in November.

“At this stage, Minos and Captains Mistress are booked on flights to NZ,” he said. “But I could add others like Swayzee later.

“Minos will go to the (NZ) Cup, but Captains Mistress won’t because she’s only a four-year-old mare and I think you can cook them going for a race like that.”