The prospect of a rain affected track won’t worry two year old Group 1 winner Capital Gain when he returns to the race track for the first time as a three year old in the $100,000 Access Insulation Winning Rupert Plate (1200m) at Doomben on Saturday.
A wet track at Doomben won’t worry Capital Gain, above, when he resumes in the Winning Rupert Plate. Photo by Steve Hart.
Doomben race course received 60mm of rain on Wednesday and while course manager Jim Roberts has put up a Heavy 10 rating on Thursday morning, he is hopeful the track will come back into the soft range for Saturday.
“It blew the prediction out of the water pretty quickly. We had in excess of 60mm,” Roberts told The Courier-Mail.
“If it was a raceday, cars on the infield would have been in trouble. The water was really running off Ascot Hill. I haven’t seen it like that for a long time.”
“If conditions help us out, we will get back to Soft by Saturday. This track can change pretty quickly.”
“There’s not a lot of rain forecast, so hopefully that’s right and it stays that way on raceday.”
Capital Gain will be having his first run back since winning the Group 1 $600,000 BMW J.J. Atkins (1600m) at Doomben on June 10 during the Brisbane Winter Carnival and trainer Paul Butterworth is not worried about the gelding facing a wet track first up.
“I’m not worried if it’s really wet as he’s got good form on heavy tracks,” Butterworth said.
Capital Gain showed in the J.J. Atkins that 1600m suited his racing style but Butterworth is confident that he will race well over the 1200m while fresh.
“It’s 1200 metres on Saturday and that’s not his pet distance but he’s jumping out of his skin,” Butterworth said.
“If he gets clear running he’ll be hard to hold off.”
A win in the Winning Rupert Plate on Saturday will see Capital Gain chase a $500,000 Summer Crown bonus if he can win two of the remaining three eligible three year old races over the Summer Carnival.
The three remaining races in the Summer Crown bonus series for the three year olds are the Listed $100,000 Gold Edition Plate (1200m) on December 17 and the Group 3 $200,000 Vo Rogue Plate (1350m) on December 30 both at Doomben and the $2m Magic Millions 3yo Guineas (1400m) at the Gold Coast on January 13.
“The original plan was to run on Saturday, miss the Gold Edition and then run in the Vo Rogue Plate and Magic Millions Guineas,” Butterworth said.
“But if he happens to win the Winning Rupert he’ll go for the Gold Edition as well and go after the bonus.”
Capital Gain is well in contention in the early betting for the Winning Rupert Plate at $7.50 with Ladbrokes.com.au who have opened up the Gregory Hickman trained Pierata as the $3.40 favourite.
On the second line of betting at $4.20 is Darryl Hansen’s Bring It Home Pop ahead of the Chris Munce trained Saint Patricks Day at $5.50.
Top Brisbane jockey Jim Byrne is confident of a quick recovery from an ankle injury to be fit to ride Capital Gain who has drawn barrier seven in the eleven horse Winning Rupert Plate field.
