$6500 yearling purchase proving a bargain buy

Young harness racing reinsman Michael Young made a wise decision when he outlaid $6500 to purchase a Rich And Spoilt colt at the 2013 Gloucester Standardbred yearling sale.

Now a three-year-old gelding by the name of Captain Oats, he is proving a wonderful bargain, with his first 26 starts producing seven wins, ten placings and stakes of $67,741 for Young, his partner Courtney Burch and six other part-owners.

Captain Oats is the best-performed runner in the $25,000 Gerard Lighting Westsired Pace for three-year-old colts and geldings at Bunbury on Friday night and he should take a power of beating, despite drawing the outside barrier of seven in a field of seven runners.

Burch prepared Captain Oats for his first four wins (one in Albany and three in Kalgoorlie) before she and Young asked Boyanup trainer Justin Prentice early this year to take over the training of the gelding while they were campaigning a big team of pacers in Albany.

Prentice has won three races with Captain Oats, including an impressive all-the-way victory at a 1.55.1 rate over 1730m at Gloucester Park on May 8.

At his next start, over 2130m at Gloucester Park on May 22 Captain Oats began out wide on the back line, raced four back on the pegs and was blocked for a run in the final stages when eighth behind Our Black Diamonds.

"I then decided to freshen him up and his work this week has been very good," Prentice said.

"He is pretty versatile and I expect him to run a good race."

The connections are hoping that Captain Oats will do better than he did when he started at 66/1 and caught the eye with a strong finishing burst to be third behind All Aussie Boy and A Force In Action in the $100,000 Westbred Classic for two-year-old colts and geldings at Gloucester Park 12 months ago.

Prentice has high hopes of landing the quinella in Friday night's race.

His other stable runner is the lightly-raced Master Jaxon, who has drawn perfectly at barrier one.

Master Jaxon entered Prentice's stables earlier this year and has won at his first two starts for his new trainer, running home well to score over 2185m at Pinjarra twice earlier this month.

"At his latest run he did a really good job when he trailed the pacemaker Sir Regal Delight and sprinted really strongly when he made use of the sprint lane to get up and beat Bettor Twisted," Prentice said.

Master Jaxon, a colt by American stallion Cams Fool, is out of Orleans mare Kenzie May Belle, who is a half-sister to smart performer Danieljohn, who ended a losing sequence of 25 at Pinjarra on Tuesday afternoon when he finished strongly from eighth at the bell to defeat Glow Bright and Machtu in a 2631m stand to boost his record to 68 starts for 18 wins, 23 placings and $185,557.
Likely to prove hardest for Captain Oats and Master Jaxon to beat is the Callan Suvaljko-trained Coeur de Whitby, a winner at five of his 23 starts and handily drawn at barrier three.

Coeur de Whitby had little luck when ninth behind Bettor Reward at Bunbury last Saturday night after winning convincingly at Pinjarra and Northam at his two previous starts.

Ken Casellas