Grimson with at least five starters in Victoria Cup

By Adam Hamilton 

Two-time New Zealand Cup winning trainer Jason Grimson is poised to dominate this Saturday's Victoria Cup.

Grimson has six of the 18 nominations for the Group 1 race and five of them look locks for a start.

Captains Mistress and Swayzee are the obvious, but Minos and Dangerous showed enough through the Brisbane Inter Dominion series.

Dangerous has also brilliantly won his past two starts, including coasting to a 1min48.5sec mile win at Menangle on Saturday night. 

Then there is veteran speedster Hi Manameisjeff, who ran a terrific Menangle placing behind Captains Mistress last start and, more importantly finishing second to Kingman and beat home Leap To Fame in last year’s Victoria Cup.

Grimson’s sixth stringer Our Sunset Delight will also press for a spot after a luckless and close second to old marvel Bulletproof Boy in the Smoken Up Sprint at Melton.

What a hand Grimson will have.

As far as drivers go, Grimson has declared he will drive dual NZ Cup winner Swayzee, while Cam Hart will of course be aboard Captains Mistress.

The rest are up for grabs.

It continues Grimson’s fantastic recent record in the Victoria Cup with Swayzee winning two years ago and Hi Manameisjeff second in last year’s race.

It’s also a crucial guide to which horses Grimson then takes to NZ.

We know Captains Mistress is going with the Kaikoura Cup her first target.

Swayzee will need to improve on his first-up run in the Geelong Cup to show he’s worthy of chasing a third NZ Cup.

Minos was also so-so at Geelong, but only first-up and expected to be a lot sharper this week.

Defending Victoria and NZ Cup winner Kingman looks by far the biggest danger to Grimson’s powerful assault on this Victoria Cup.

But the reality is he will need a favourable barrier when they are drawn at midday NZ time on Tuesday to have any real chance of beating Captains Mistress.

And that’s why Captains Mistress is a remarkably short $1.30 before the draw.

Inter Dominion placegetter Nyack will be at least a place chance if he draws to use his blazing gate speed.

The hometown hopes are led by the emerging Fighter Command and veteran marvel Bulletproof Boy, who returned to winning form in the Smoken Up Sprint.

Fighter Command led and ran third in the race, again showing he is much better when driven off the pace at this stage of his career.

Geelong Cup winner Jilliby Nitro is assured of a berth after the Geelong win landed him a golden ticket.