Granddaughter of Southland Oaks victor won twice in 60 hours!
By Peter Wharton
The bonny Captain Crunch two-year-old filly Captainshavtime, who was bred and is part-owned by Invercargill lawyer Murray Little, notched two wins in the space of just 60 hours at Gloucester Park last weekend.
Murray Little with Betterthanbrie
On the Friday night she led throughout from an outside gate at a 1:59.8 rate for 2130 metres and then backed up on Monday afternoon, coming from second last to win comfortably in a career-best 1:57.2 over 1730 metres.
The filly is trained by leading Perth mentors Greg and Skye Bond and driven by Deni Roberts.
She has won three of her five starts to date for $32,213 in stakes.
“She ran third in a Group 2 at Winton on debut, then won easily against the older horses at Winton and finished fifth in a Group 2 at Addington,” Little, the man behind the Havtime Breeding brand, said.
“She’s a bit lazy but has got plenty of ability,” Little stated.
The Captainshavtime story actually began 13 years ago when Little purchased her grand-dam, the smart Holmes Hanover mare Suvarno Hanover from Canterbury breeder Ewen Brown.
Captainshavtime
“Ewen rang me and asked me if I wanted to buy the mare. I think I paid $25,000 for her in foal to Courage Under Fire,” Murray said.
“Suvarno Hanover won the 2007 Southland Oaks and was probably the second best filly in NZ of her year behind One Dream. She ended up winning nine races and more than $100,000.
“Surprisingly enough I owned and later bred from One Dream’s full sister Dream Angel. She couldn’t pace but left five winners including One Christian, the dam of Mighthavtime who won races with Greg Bond as well and is now racing successfully in North America.”
Suvarno Hanover has produced 11 foals of racing age for six winners headed up by Wannabet (1:53.9), a winner of 11 races in NZ and WA including four at Gloucester Park, and the Betterthancheddar mare
Survano Hanover wins the Southland Oaks
Betterthanbrie (1:56.2).
“Betterthanbrie won five races and had 12 placings. She ran third in the Southland Oaks and was a certainty beaten. She drew nine and didn’t get out until it was too late and flew home,” Little said.
“Betterthanbrie ran second to Mighty Conqueror as a three-year-old and second beaten a nose by Spirit Of St Louis and third to Minstrel as a five-year-old.”
She finished up with a stake tally of $50,897.
Captainshavtime is her first foal.
Her second issue is the yearling colt Havtimeformiki (by Always B Miki).
“He’s had his second prep and is going pretty well. I’ve got six new people to harness racing in him and they’re pretty excited. He was broken in by Kirk Larsen and he will train him,” Murray said.
Betterthanbrie is in foal to Captain Crunch again and she’ll go back to him this season.
“I’ve had three Captain Crunches and they’re just lovely natured horses. I love them to bits,” Murray said.