Horse racing: Manners the key as exciting pacer steps up at The Park

Captain Sampson has a touch of class but faces his first standing-start test at Alexandra Park tonight.

For Captain Sampson, tonight’s handicap pace at Alexandra Park isn’t a question of class.

It is more about the dual questions of manners and timing.

Nobody who has seen the best of Captain Sampson doubts where he is heading, to open class and maybe one night to a Group 1 winners’ circle.

But tonight, the 3-year-old at just his 13th start faces rivals like Jolimont and Little Spike, who are already proven at the top level and the ATC Members Handicap is also Captain Sampson’s first standing-start race.

Captain Sampson returned after a long break with a spectacular 55s last-800m win last start, which suggests if he can stay in front of the favourites tonight, he can win.

Which is where the manners and timing come in.

“We know it is his first standing start but he is a beautifully gaited horse and he handled his qualifying standing start at the workouts really well,” co-trainer Gareth Hughes said.

“So we aren’t so worried about the standing start but he is still on the way up and he will continue to get better with racing.

“He is only 3 but these days, the good horses can get up in those higher grades pretty quickly.”

He said if the horse ”can stay in front of those back-makers, he has a good chance”.

Hughes said Captain Sampson is unlikely to be heading to Addington for the $500,000 slot race The Velocity on November 14 and will continue racing, primarily at Alexandra Park, with an eye on the Golden Gait Finals in December.

Cambridge trainer Arna Donnelly has four reps in the seven-horse handicap tonight and either of Little Spike or Jolimont could easily triumph as they step down from the absolute highest grade.

Hughes has even more reason to be confident in the opening race tonight in which he and father Brian Hughes train Carerra Hombre, who has raced in far stronger fields and has the gate speed to head forward.

“He has had two trials and gotten fitter with each of them so he will be hard,” he said.

Tonight’s meeting hosts two TAB Metro Finals, with the $35,000 Trotting Final dominated by 3-year-olds Higher Power and Youneverknow.

Both start off 20m handicaps but they are open-class horses in the making so whichever of the pair has the best early manners and gets superior field position will become the one to beat.

The Pacing Final brings together plenty of horses with gate speed so there could be early pressure and that potentially sets the 2200m mobile up nicely for Mako (Race 5, No 11), who has hit the line hard in both starts this campaign and has always had the look of a good horse.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.