Dixon stunned at Captains Mistress snub

[Wandering Eyes]

by Adam Hamilton

Champion Queensland trainer Grant Dixon cannot believe star Kiwi filly Captains Mistress was overlooked for a start in Saturday night’s $300,000 Group 1 Rising Sun at Albion Park.

Instead, her Kiwi trainer Nathan Williamson will come across her as a hot favourite from barrier in a consolation of the Rising Sun.

“I’m more than surprised, I’m dumbfounded, to be honest,” Dixon said. “What more did she need to do?

“Along with everything she’s done in NZ, she’s come across here (Brisbane) early and won both her races.

“And what she did at Redcliffe (in the Oaks) last week was enormous. It takes a really special horse to do the work she did at Redcliffe and win.

“Combine the work she did with the fact she ran as quick as the boys did in the (Redcliffe) Derby and I just can’t see how didn’t get in (to the Rising Sun).

“I think she’d have brought a real X-factor to the race, too. And she could’ve won it with the right sort of run, she’s that good.”

Dixon will still have three Rising Sun runners, three-year-old pair Fate Awaits and Path To Greatness, along with four-year-old Charge Ahead.

Kiwi star Rubira and Luke McCarthy’s Hesitate join Dixon’s pair to give the race a record four three-year-old runners.

No three-year-old has won the Rising Sun in its four-year history. The closest have been Leap To Fame’s third in 2022 and Rocknroll Hammer’s second (to Leap To Fame) in 2023.

“If it’s going to happen, this is the year,” Dixon said. “It’s a good four-year-old crop, but there’s no standout, while the three-year-olds look like a really good batch.”

Rubira, fresh from leading throughout in last week’s Redcliffe Derby and beating Dixon’s pair, is the most strongly fancied of the three-year-olds at $5.50 from gate three.

Kiwi-bred The Janitor is a firming ($4.50 into $3.50) favourite from gate six.

He is trained by Chantal Turpin and driven by her husband Pete McMullen, who are going for back-to-back wins in the feature after Wisper A Secret won well last year.

NZ’s other Rising Sun hopeful, David and Stacey White’s Betterthancash, is sweating on a start as the first emergency.

His chances hinge whether Victorian star Bay Of Biscay and stablemate War Dan Buddy get  a flight from Melbourne to Brisbane on Friday.

Insiders say the flight is only a remote chance of happening.

Bay Of Biscay and War Dan Buddy will be scratched if the flight doesn’t eventuate.

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