Outstanding pacer Captains Knock (Captaintreacherous) was never out of second gear when he coasted to defeat his harness racing rivals in the listed $60,000 SS&A Murray Cup at Albury on Friday evening and in doing so collected a $500,000 bonus.

The race over 2570 metres was the fourth leg of the New South Wales Carnival of Cups. Captains Knock had won the previous legs at Wagga, Newcastle and Bathurst and was a raging hot favourite to repeat his previous successes.

In fact such was his perceived dominance that only his stable mate Horn Player was considered to be the only possible threat and even he started at double figure odds.

A supremely confident Brad Hewitt seemed determined to give Captains Knock as easy a run as possible and in the seven horse field was in fourth position early before allowing the five year old to stride past early leader Dom Toretto with two laps left to travel.

CAPTAINS KNOCK 13 FEB REPLAY

Hewitt sat right back in the cart and never needed to extend Captains Knock. Horn Player moved up to be outside the leader at the bell as the field packed up with Dom Toretto poised behind the leader. However Captains Knock had so much in reserve as he ran a final quarter of 28.4 seconds. Dom Toretto was six metres away in second place with Horn Player in third.

His mile rate of 1.59.9 for the 2570 metres was outside the track record of 1.57.1 set by last year’s winner Captain Hammerhead.

Apparently the $500,000 bonus that Captains Knock will earn does not form part of his official stake money of $827,026 achieved with 27 wins and 20 placings from 66 starts.

All eyes will now be on the Renshaw Cup at Penrith on 20 March when Captains Knock’s bonus will increase to $1 million if he is successful. However he is sure to face a tougher field to what he was up against at Albury.

Hewitt reflected after the event.

It’s pretty surreal, it all started a couple of months ago in November. We thought we’d give it a crack.

To keep stepping it up and getting it done he’d had his niggles and issues along the way. So he’s done a great job the horse. He missed a fair bit of work between Bathurst and now. Its just a credit to him he keeps coming out and getting the job done. (Penrith) is a long way away  we’ve got the Miracle Mile qualifiers coming up. I’m just going to take it as it goes. If he’s a healthy happy horse we might go in that. We’ll have to go one day and one week at a time.

He does need the racing because I can’t do a lot with him at home. That’s what I’ve done with his whole career, he thrives on racing. With the Miracle Mile carnival there’s going to be no easy races there.

Hewitt was not too concerned at the tight Albury track.

He’s a really good gaited horse, it’s a bit of a shock to the system when you come from Goulburn and Menangle these really good tracks to the little half mile tracks at Albury I haven’t driven them around them for a long time. He handled it well he’s such a professional. To have a horse like this he’s once in a lifetime. There’s not many horses like him, with his bonuses he’s over a million dollars. We all need to pinch ourselves.

Earlier in the evening the crowd was treated to a stylish all the way win by Miki Be Good (Always B Miki) who ran a track record in winning his heat of the TAB Regional Championships. The $150,000 Final will be held at Menangle on 2 May and the way that Miki Be Good toyed with his rivals in a competitive race suggests that he will take beating in the Final. The Dean Atkinson trained gelding was confidently handled by Harrison Ross who never looked like losing once he went to the early lead.

It was a large crowd that enjoyed the night’s racings and the club was expecting 7 to 8,000 in attendance. Albury enjoys the distinction of having the largest regional attendances in New South Wales with its two meetings on New years Eve and its Cup night. The 804 metre track provides an entertaining spectacle with the horses being close to the action.

For complete race results, click here.

by Tony Milanese, for Harnesslink