Group One winner Captured By Love returned to the scene of her biggest win and was right back at the peak of her powers in the Gr.3 Windsor Park Stud Canterbury Breeders’ Stakes (1400m) at Riccarton on Saturday.
The daughter of Written Tycoon showed her class as a three-year-old with a brilliant victory in the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) during last season’s New Zealand Cup Carnival in Christchurch, and she was also a placegetter in the Gr.2 Sarten Memorial (1400m), Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m) and Gr.3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m).
Captured By Love’s form fell away through the rest of that season, finishing only seventh in the Gr.1 Sistema Railway (1200m) at Ellerslie before venturing to Melbourne and running fourth in the Listed Desirable Stakes (1400m) and eighth in the Gr.2 Kewney Stakes (1600m).
The chestnut mare kicked off her four-year-old season in the North Island with a fifth over 1400m at Ellerslie and a second in a 1300m race at Taupo. A return to Riccarton was something of an afterthought, only coming on to the radar after the abandonment of the Te Rapa meeting on Labour Day, and she flew back down to Christchurch just days out from Saturday’s race.
But the change of scenery in Te Akau Racing’s Riccarton stable brought the very best out of Captured By Love last spring, and the same thing has happened 12 months later.
Captured By Love jumped from the outside gate in the 14-horse field, and rider Bruno Queiroz was unable to get her any closer than three wide turning out of the back straight to come down the side of the track.
But despite covering extra ground, Captured By Love cruised forward around the outside of her rivals and was breathing down the neck of the leaders Churchillian and Nepheti before the turn for home.
Captured By Love took command and dashed to a clear lead at the top of the straight. It briefly looked like her wide run might take its toll as the chasers began to eat into her margin, but Captured By Love lifted again in the last 100m.
She swept past the finish line two lengths clear of The Radiant One, with a neck and a head back to Candycane and Girls Light Up respectively. The time was 1:21.53, the third-fastest in the history of the Canterbury Breeders’ Stakes.
“It’s fantastic to see her back like that,” said Sam Bergerson, who trains in partnership with Mark Walker. “She was obviously a 1000 Guineas winner here last spring. She’s had a bit of a rough time since then and hasn’t always had the rub of the green.
“We took a bit of a risk deciding to bring her back down here again, but she’s an experienced traveller now and she just handled it so well. The change of scenery has done her good.
“She did it tough today. The plan was to be positive from the wide gate. Bruno wasn’t able to get cover, but he had her travelling really well and then presented her at the top of the straight.
“I thought she was there to be beaten with 200m to go, but she kept finding and won really well.
“She’s a Group One winner, and now that we’ve got her back in winning form, we can hopefully target some nice races through the summer.”
Captured By Love was bought by David Ellis for A$525,000 from the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. She has now had 16 starts for six wins, six placings and $804,486 in stakes.
With Ellis still at recuperating at home after undergoing major surgery earlier in the season, the stable was represented at Riccarton on Saturday by his wife Karyn Fenton-Ellis.
“David hasn’t been in the best of health, but he’ll be watching at home and this will be a big boost for him,” she said. “This horse won a Group One here in Christchurch at this time last year, and she’s obviously happy to be back – and so are we.” – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk.
