Ravishing seeking more harness racing glory

It is 25 years since hulking Kiwi pacer Christian Cullen blasted his way to the most memorable Miracle Mile by what seemed half the length of the old Harold Park home straight.

There have been harness racing horses as good as him since, but none with quite the aura, charisma and presence … until now.

Captain Ravishing (Captaintreacherous) has all the makings of this generation’s Christian Cullen.

And, like his Kiwi predecessor, the Miracle Mile shapes as his playground to prove it.

Christian Cullen won that 1998 Miracle Mile by 20m and that’s also Captain Ravishing’s average winning margin in his seven wins from just eight starts for Victoria’s dominant stable, Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin.

Harness devotees have enjoyed Captain Ravishing’s stunning emergence for several months, but became a genuine big-ticket item and started to transcend the harness racing bubble with a blistering win in the 4YO Bonanza at Melton last Saturday night (Feb. 11).

It was Hunter Cup night – Victoria’s biggest race of the year – but Captain Ravishing’s win in a support race stole the show.

Stewart and Tonkin also won their first Hunter Cup that night with Honolua Bay, but spent more time fielding questions and talking about Captain Ravishing.

Even in the jubilant moments after Honolua Bay’s win, Tonkin was asked whether he or Captain Ravishing was the stable’s best chance in the Miracle Mile. Without hesitation, he snapped: “Captain Ravishing, clearly.”

Tonkin added: “We haven’t trained a better horse.”

It’s a big call when you think back to the remarkable but injury-plagued Ride High (16 wins from 18 starts) and champion mare Ladies In Red (22 wins and five seconds from just 27 starts).

Captain Ravishing is what harness racing badly needs, a rock star to reach the masses, which he started to do with that latest win going to a big, broad audience via Racing.com.

Top jockey Blake Shinn was watching from that night and tweeted: “Champion.” It’s not a label someone as experienced in racing just tosses around.

Well-known racing writer Bruce Clark was trackside on the same night and in awe. “He’s the most exciting horse in the country right now,” he penned.

That’s thoroughbreds, headed by Cox Plate winner Anamoe and champion sprinter Nature Strip, included.

So, where did Captain Ravishing come from?

He’s bred to be good, out of a terrific NSW family and by the brilliant and relatively young US stallion Captaintreacherous. Victorian Hass Taiba bought him for $80,000 – which is right up there for a yearling pacer – at the 2020 Australian Gold sales in Sydney.

Taiba’s brother, Ahmed, trained Captain Ravishing early and loved him. He’d had a star pacer Sushi Sushi, who won 27 races and banked over $1.1 million, and told Hass that Captain Ravishing was better at the same stage.

Captain Ravishing blazed a 1min52.5sec mile rate for 1720m at just second start at Melton, but went winless through his three runs, two of them at Group 1 level.

“Ahmed deserves a lot of credit because he didn’t push the horse. We’d done that with most of our other youngsters and they hadn’t quite gone on with it,” Hass said. “When he was spelling, Ahmed said he’s a bit special and probably needed to go to a stable like Clayton and Emma to fulfill his potential.”

Hass recalls a phone call just a few months later.

“Clayton was buzzing. He said Ride High had the record time for going up the hill at their place and Captain Ravishing had just gone quicker,” he said.

Soon after, Captain Ravishing won his first start for Stewart and Tonkin at Ballarat by 36.5m – seemingly in second gear.

His times and winning margins since have been mesmerizing.

Before he tries to do a Christian Cullen in the Miracle Mile on March 4, Captain Ravishing has to book a spot in the field. And that will come with victory in Australasia’s top four-year-old race, the Group 1 Chariots Of Fire at Menangle on Saturday night.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Australia