Captain Albano favoured in career farewell

Captain Albano (Captaintreacherous-Angelou) will head to the final start of his harness racing career Wednesday as the morning-line favorite in the $267,960 Progress Pace at Bally’s Dover, where he will meet seven rivals in the season’s last Grand Circuit event for 3-year-old male pacers.

Last week, Captain Albano and driver Todd McCarthy won the single Progress Pace elimination by a half-length over Better Is Nice in 1:49.4. Captain Albano was a first-over third heading around the opening turn, took the lead on his way to a :54 half as he repelled a challenge from Nijinsky, and came home in :27.4 to wrap up the victory.

It was Captain Albano’s 11th win in 17 starts this year and increased his earnings to $984,593.

“I’m super happy with him,” trainer Noel Daley said. “It’s been a long year, and he’s still good. He’s really been good every time I’ve put him out there. To me, the only time he’s had a bit of an average performance was when he won the Adios; he was a little off that day. But anytime he’s been beaten, he’s been beaten because of the trip, really.

“He’s just there all the time. He seems to be the same horse every week. He got out-tripped a few times, but apart from that, he’s been genuine every time.”

Captain Albano was the Dan Patch Award winner for best 2-year-old male pacer in 2023, when he was no worse than second in nine starts, winning seven. For his career, he has hit the board in 24 of 26 races and earned $1.43 million for owners Patricia Stable, L.A. Express Stable, Sjoblom Racing, and Michael Dolan.

On Wednesday, Captain Albano will start the Progress final from post six with regular driver McCarthy in the sulky. He is the 5-2 choice on the morning line, followed by Breeders Crown champion Mirage Hanover at 7-2 (post one, driver Dexter Dunn) and North America Cup winner Nijinsky at 9-2 (post four, Louis Roy).

Following the Progress Pace, Captain Albano will be retired and stand at Blue Chip Farms in New York for the 2025 breeding season.

“Let’s hope it’s a good final performance,” Daley said. “It’s a bit of a tough spot, so we’ll just see what happens. Obviously, he’s shown that he’s brilliant out of the gate. But it’s a good bunch of horses there.

“I don’t know what (McCarthy) will do, I’ll just leave it up to him,” the trainer continued, adding with a laugh, “He didn’t ask for any comments last week, we just handed him the lines and away he went. So, we’ll do the same this week and see what happens.”

In addition to the Adios, Captain Albano’s wins this year include the Little Brown Jug, Max C. Hempt Memorial, and Matron Stakes. On Jug Day, he won his elimination by 3-1/2 lengths in 1:49.2 before coming back to take the same-day final by three lengths in 1:50.1.

“Obviously, we were pretty happy with the Jug performance,” Daley said. “He came out of the first heat so well, I figured they weren’t beating him in the second. He was very good that day. He was very sharp.”