Captain is primed to ravage them again

Captain Ravishing’s (Captaintreacherous) harness racing renaissance could be even sweeter than his rise to prominence for owner Hass Taiba.

The five-year-old’s career has been quite the roller coaster, but he looks to be back on target towards what could be the biggest win of his career in Friday night’s $450,000 Group 1 WA Pacing Cup at Gloucester Park.

It was just 21 months ago when Captain Ravishing was the pin-up pacer of Australasia and touted as the “next big thing.”

A string of niggling issues and a couple of stable changes later, and trainer Freddy Taiba, Hass’ brother, insists he has Captain Ravishing back.

“It’s been a long haul, but I really think we’ve got him back,” he said. “He won well the other day at Gloucester Park, and I took him to Byford today, and he was amazing. They say you can’t break 27sec (for 400m), and he ran 26sec for fun.”

“There’s been times where we’ve wondered if we’d get him back racing, let alone back to something like his best form.”

“He hasn’t been right for so long, but I really think we are there now.”

Freddy Taiba said Captain Ravishing was much more than a horse to his family.

“Oh, hell yes. It’s not about the money, but really about the horse winning some big races he deserves to have on his CV,” he said.

“I had Hass on the phone the other day crying when he looked back on his win last week and the fact he’s got a serious chance of winning this big one.”

“He’s a horse who has been judged on what he did early and held to such high standards because of it, despite all his setbacks.”

“It would be incredibly satisfying if we can bring him back from all of that and win such a big race as this.”

Freddy said he made the late decision to head to Perth when he felt Captain Ravishing was back on song and wouldn’t be suited to the four races in a week format of the upcoming NSW Inter Dominion series.

“And we get to race for big money over here without having to take on the best two horses in the land, Leap To Fame and Swayzee,” he said.

“Mister Smartee and Minstrel are nice horses here, but they’re no Leap To Fame.”

“I like the fact we’ve drawn the back row, let the race unfold early and save him for his big finish.”

Captain Ravishing  (gate 11) has been backed from $5.50 into $4.20 since Monday’s barrier draw. He is equal third favourite behind Pinny Tiger (gate one, $3.40), Mister Smartee (five, $3.80) and Minstrel (two, $4.20).

For complete race entries, click here.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Australia