{"id":334689,"date":"2026-09-01T09:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/334689\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T09:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:52:12","slug":"the-queens-gambit-makes-winning-australian-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/334689\/","title":{"rendered":"The Queen\u2019s Gambit makes winning Australian debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    Written by\u00a0<a href=\"#molongui-disabled-link\" rel=\"author\" class=\"molongui-author-link\" data-author-id=\"2117157\">Harnesslink Media<\/a>        <\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Queen\u2019s Gambit (Captain Crunch) made the perfect start to her Australian harness racing campaign with a dominant victory at Menangle on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2394286\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/The-Queens-Gambit.png\" alt=\"The Queens Gambit\" width=\"1116\" height=\"810\" title=\"The Queen\u2019s Gambit makes winning Australian debut 1\"  \/>The Queens Gambit pictured winning a race in New Zealand (Race Images Photo)<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Owned and part-bred by Mick Harvey, the beautifully bred three-year-old filly was having her first Australian start for leading trainer Jason Grimson and driver Cameron Hart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Despite starting from the outside of the front line in barrier 10, The Queen\u2019s Gambit justified her short $1.25 quote with an impressive 11.4-metre victory in the Wards Accounting Group Pace over 1609 metres.<\/p>\n<p>THE QUEEN\u2019S GAMBIT REPLAY<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The daughter of Captain Crunch arrived in Australia with strong New Zealand form, highlighted by her Group One second in the New Zealand Sires\u2019 Stakes Two-Year-Old Fillies Final at Addington during Cup Week in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Her pedigree makes her an exciting racing and future breeding prospect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Queen\u2019s Gambit is the first foal from the Art Major mare Gemma Mac, herself a talented five-time winner. Gemma Mac is a full sister to New Zealand pacing star Merlin and a half-sister to champion mare Captains Mistress.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Merlin has earned more than $1.8 million, with his major victories including the $1 million Race by Grins and the Group One New Zealand and Northern Derbies. His outstanding 2024 season also earned him New Zealand Pacer of the Year honours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Captains Mistress has won 20 races and earned more than $1.65 million in prizemoney while establishing herself as one of Australasia\u2019s finest mares.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Her outstanding Group One victories include the $300,000 Rising Sun, where she defeated a quality field in a track-record mile rate, the Queen Elizabeth II Mile at Menangle and the $1 million Inter Dominion Pacing Final at Albion Park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">In the Inter Dominion Final, Captains Mistress defeated champion pacer Leap To Fame and became the first mare to win the famous race since Jodie\u2019s Babe in 1989.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Those performances highlight the depth and quality of the maternal family behind The Queen\u2019s Gambit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The filly will continue her Australian campaign with the Grimson stable before eventually joining Harvey\u2019s select boutique broodmare band.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">That breeding operation has already produced outstanding Group One winners Kingman and Ripples, and The Queen\u2019s Gambit shapes as another valuable addition when her racing career is complete.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">For now, however, the focus remains firmly on racing, and her dominant Menangle debut suggests there should be plenty more to look forward to during her Australian campaign.<\/p>\n<p>For complete race results, <a href=\"https:\/\/natsite.harness.org.au\/racing\/fields\/race-fields\/?mc=PC010926\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>From\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/harnesslink.com\/tag\/harnesslink-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Harnesslink Media<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Written by\u00a0Harnesslink Media The Queen\u2019s Gambit (Captain Crunch) made the perfect start to her Australian harness racing campaign&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-334689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}