{"id":343997,"date":"2026-03-23T17:35:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343997\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T17:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:35:22","slug":"captains-knock-gets-the-go-ahead-for-1m-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343997\/","title":{"rendered":"Captains Knock gets the go-ahead for $1m The Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Captains Knock confirmed for The Race, Leap To Fame eyeing up another tilt at the New Zealand Cup and the latest on Keayang Zahara all feature in today’s Aussie News update.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Race confirmed for Captains Knock\u00a0<\/p>\n

By Adam Hamilton\u00a0<\/p>\n

Star NSW pacer Captains Knock will add to the Aussie raid at Cambridge next month.<\/p>\n

Connections wanted to see how he came through last Friday night\u2019s Renshaw Cup at Cambridge, but trainer-driver Brad Hewitt has given him the tick of approval.<\/p>\n

Captains Knock fell agonizingly short of banking a record $1 million bonus at Penrith.<\/p>\n

The six-year-old missed the full NSW Carnival of Cups bonus by a half-head when second and rundown late by the much-improved Ubetcha Tigerpie.<\/p>\n

Like Swayzee last year, Captains Knock won four of the five legs of the NSW Carnival of Cups and finished second in the other.<\/p>\n

They both still banked $500,000 for connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating to get so close, but he gave it everything. The winner just went super on the night,\u201d trainer-driver Brad Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t at his most comfortable on the tight track. Apart from Albury, where he didn\u2019t enjoy the small track at all, he hadn\u2019t been around a track like Penrith since he raced there about four years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s coming to the end of a long campaign, but he seems good since the race so we will push on the NZ.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter NZ he can have a long spell. He\u2019ll miss the Inter Dominion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Captains Knock has won 27 of his 68 starts and banked $838,351, but that doesn\u2019t include the $500,000 bonus.<\/p>\n

Captains Knock’s inclusion takes the Aussie involvement in The Race to at least five. The others are Leap To Fame, Swayzee, Kingman and The Janitor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other stable news, Hewitt said his former Inter Dominion-winning trotter The Locomotive was progressing well on the comeback trail.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s due back in my stable next month. So far, so good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s down at Nathan Jack\u2019s on the water-walker, then he comes back here.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the sort of horse who comes to hand quickly because he really gets into his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan is the Inter Dominion (Albion Park in July) and time is on our side at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Locomotive hasn\u2019t raced since being struck down with niggling issues after winning at Menangle on November 29.<\/p>\n

It ruled him out of early season features like the Great Southern Star, Hammerhead Mile and Trot Slot in Cambridge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NZ Cup plan for Leap To Fame\u00a0<\/p>\n

Returning to Cambridge next month may not be Leap To Fame\u2019s last Kiwi raid.<\/p>\n

His owner Kevin Seymour has opened the door for another potential New Zealand Cup tilt in November.<\/p>\n

While expectation was growing Leap To Fame would be retired to stud after chasing a third Inter Dominion title in Brisbane in July, Seymour hinted otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love to go back and have another crack at the NZ Cup,\u201d he said. \u201cI know Grant (Dixon, trainer-driver) feels the same way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel a bit of unfinished business. He had a hard run last year and went down fighting, but he looks to be racing even better now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know people want to know our plans, but we genuinely don\u2019t have any.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve agreed to let the horse tell us, through his performances, when it\u2019s time to retire him.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, we\u2019re focused on getting back to Cambridge and the Inter Dominion, then we\u2019ll reassess everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seymour didn\u2019t deny talk he was preparing a stud deal in the background.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, but we have to do that because if he was to retire this year, we would need everything in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not doing that because he will retire, it is in case we retire him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seymour then quickly switched talk back to his excitement at returning to Cambridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had such a great trip last year and the horse thrived,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re trying to pretty much replicate what we did last year with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s back home now where he loves it most, then he\u2019ll go back to Sydney by road and it seems the flight to Auckland will be Easter Saturday or Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe won\u2019t race over there before The Race and he won\u2019t be staying after it. It\u2019s a hit-and-run trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

It looks likely Leap To Fame will go into the $1 million The Race without another start, meaning he will be a month between runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrant and Trista seem to think that won\u2019t be a problem and it would be very hard to get a race to \u2018stand-up\u2019 (with enough starters) at Albion Park if we nominate him,\u201d Seymour said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other reason for bringing him home straight after Cambridge is how long Grant\u2019s already been away this year. He\u2019s had six weeks in Melbourne and two weeks in Sydney. That\u2019s a huge ask with a big stable and young family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also want time to give him (Leap To Fame) a bit of a break at home before bringing him back up for the Inter Dominion. He has had a busy start to the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leap To Fame has already raced eight times in 2026 for six wins, two seconds and banked $A876,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Next stop Cambridge for Keayang Zahara\u00a0<\/p>\n

Champion Aussie trotting mare Keayang Zahara may not race again before the $530,000 Trot Slot at Cambridge on April 10.<\/p>\n

Connections are considering Saturday night\u2019s Terang Trotters\u2019 Cup, but driver Jason Lee said it was more likely she would miss the race given it a standing start and Keayang Zahara would be off a 30m handicap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t made a final decision and we would dearly love to run her at our home track, but it may not be the right thing so close to the (NZ) trip,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she didn\u2019t run, we could still take her in for a workout between races so she\u2019s part of the night (Terang Cup night).\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee said the Keayang Zahara had travelled home well and enjoyed a quiet week since her sparkling Group 1 Hammerhead Mile win at Menangle just over a week ago.<\/p>\n

It was her 27th win from 28 starts and she equalled the Australasian mile trotting record at 1min51.5sec.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019d have asked her a bit earlier, we might have broken the record instead of equalling it,\u201d Lee laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came home with Paddy (Lee) and Harry (Craven) and they said she travelled really well and we\u2019ve given her a quiet time since. We\u2019ll start to crank her up again this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee said travel plans for Keayang Zahara and Jilliby Ballerini would be finalised this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaddy\u2019s working through it and being Easter makes it a bit trickier, but it looks like they\u2019ll go over a week before the race, so they won\u2019t race over there before the big one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Keayang Zahara it will almost certainly be just a one race trip, but there is a chance \u2018Ballerino\u2019 could stay on for a couple of those other big trotting races in Auckland. We\u2019ll play that by ear and see how she is after the Cambridge run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s cousin, Glen Craven, will drive Jilliby Ballerini.<\/p>\n

Asked whether Jilliby Ballerini could upset Keayang Zahara, Lee said: \u201cIt\u2019s possible, but every time you think the gap might be closing, \u2018Zahara\u2019 does something special and reminds you how good she is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say if they clashed 50 times, Zahara would win 48 or 49 of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jilliby Ballerini, who has chased Keayang Zahara in the Great Southern Star and Hammerhead in recent starts, is likely to tackle the Terang Trotters\u2019 Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say so. She\u2019s raced from a stand and it makes more sense to run her,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

Jilliby Ballerini has won her only two Australian standing-start races and ran a desperately unlucky fourth to Gus from a stand in the Dominion Trot at Addington on November 11, last year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Captains Knock confirmed for The Race, Leap To Fame eyeing up another tilt at the New Zealand Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-343997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}