Jayne Davies has capped off her first season training at the Cranbourne Harness Racing centre in the best way possible – winning at Group 1 level.
Her four-year-old pacer Captain Bellasario was rated a $16 chance to claim the season ending $130,000 Vicbred Super Series at Melton on New Year’s eve and was given the perfect drive from Jack Laugher settling one out one back from barrier four.
Shuffled back a place in the running line following a mid-race move by second favourite Act Now, Laugher timed his run to perfection to win by a half neck.
“It’s a great thrill, a really good surprise,” said Davies.
“From the draw he was a little bit of chance.
“We were going to run the gate and see if we could get across, but if not we were going to slot in pretty quickly.
“He was probably going to be up nice and handy, and he’s got great closing sectionals so we thought he was a little bit of an each way chance.”
It was the 14th Group 1 win of Davies’ decorated career and first for many seasons.
Davies is bullish about Captain Bellasario’s future prospects, though she plans on remaining patient with him.
“You do miss not getting those Group 1s…that’s for sure,” she said.
“It’s taken a little while, but this horse I think can go pretty far.
“He’s just got great speed and he’s really matured in the last six months.
“He has strengthened up a fair bit, he was a little bit weak as a two and three year old but now he’s really started to develop and fill out.
“If he settles in his races I think he can go a fair way, (But) we’ll just work through our classes.
“He’s still on a pretty low mark so there’s still a couple of races he can win in town before he has to take on the big boys so we’ll just take him along and introduce him to the real top liners slowly and see how he goes.”
It was a spectacular finish to Davies’ first season operating at the Cranbourne Harness Training Complex, winning 18 races from just 61 starters with another 20 filling the minor placings.
“The facilities here are good, you’ve got the treadmill, the pool, a couple of tracks, so maybe it’s the change in scenery,” she explained.
“They had a good break before they came back into work and they’ve all fired up a bit.”
