Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Prominent New Zealand breeders and owners Syd and Shona Brown had no regrets when they sent their pacing mare Askmenow to Western Australia in 2013 to be trained by Gary Hall Snr.
Askmenow won eight times from 30 starts for Hall before being retired with earnings of $112,344 from ten wins and 12 placings from 49 starts.
And the Browns are more than happy that they sent Askmenow’s third foal and fourth foals, Scarlet Ribbon and Captain Bligh, to Hall’s Serpentine stables.
Scarlet Ribbon won three at her four starts in WA before breaking down a couple of times, and now her full-brother Captain Bligh is developing into an extremely smart performer for Hall, having won seven of his first 17 starts in WA.
Captain Bligh, a four-year-old by Captaintreacherous, was the $3.10 favourite when Stuart McDonald drove him to an impressive victory in the $21,000 Perth’s Hit Music Station Nova 93.7 Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Captain Bligh began speedily from barrier five and burst to the front after 450m before setting a brisk pace and winning by ten metres from $81 outsider Blaze Coops, rating a smart 1.54.6 over 2130m.
Captain Bligh has earned $62,685 and has sound prospects of developing into a contender in the rich feature events for four-year-olds later this year.
The Browns have already enjoyed considerable successes in WA with their pacers, winning the Fremantle Cup with the Tim Butt-trained My Field Marshal and the WA Pacing Cup in January 2023 with the Hall-trained Diego.
“I remember watching Askmenow winning races here about ten years ago soon after I arrived in WA from New Zealand,” said McDonald.
“I wasn’t involved in the early speed in tonight’s race when Loucid Dreams and Blaze Coops ran a fast lead time of 35.4sec.,” said McDonald. “I know that Blaze Coops likes to roll along in front, but I thought if I took her on, she was most likely to hand up to me. And I though Captain Bligh was good enough to do what I wanted him to do.
“When Captain Bligh hits the rail, he is an impressive horse. He can go with some of our better ones in trackwork. When he leads it takes everything they’ve got to get over him. We have always had a good opinion of him.
“The only thing that has held him back is his tractability. If he was a more tractable animal, he would go through the grades quickly. But he makes life hard by hanging, and he likes to lock on one rein. Down on the rail tonight he wasn’t brilliant, but he was a lot better than he usually is. He showed what he can do.”