The Darwin racing public sadly farewelled sprinting champion The Captain at the start of the year when his retirement was confirmed, and now they mourn his passing.
The 10-year-old gelding, who was trained by 10-time champion Top End premiership trainer Gary Clarke, passed away in Queensland early Sunday morning due to a bout of colic.
“Yeah, terrible news,” Clarke said.
“He’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime type of horse.
“They don’t come along very often those kind of horses.
“He loved his job, he loved racing and he was just a lovely horse to have around.
“They’re very hard to come across.”
When The Captain’s retirement was confirmed in early January, it was announced that he would relocate to Queensland and be retrained to pursue an equestrian career.
He had found a new home at Biloela where he would be cared for by Renee Semple, daughter of Mary Semple, who was a part-owner of The Captain.
Before arriving at Biloela, the gelding was to spend time with experienced retrainer Natalie Siiankoski at Tamborine in south-east Queensland.
“They were sending us updates of his progress as far as his change of work program,” Clarke said.
“They were popping him over a few jumps and you could see he just loved what he was doing – he was really enjoying it.”
It was around 11pm on Saturday that Clarke received news on The Captain.
“We got a phone call to let us know that the vets pretty much said he wasn’t going to make it,” he added.
“They just wanted to know if it was OK that they made the call to put him down.
“Obviously, we said to just leave it in the hands of the vets.
“If he’s not going to make it, he’s not going to make it, simple as that.
“It’s just something that can come on a healthy horse straight out of the blue.
“It’s just part of the equine industry, a horse can get colic for no reason at all and it can be fatal to them.”
Understandably, the Clarke racing stable and NT racing community have been left in a state of shock following passing of the Top End’s Horse of the Year for 2019 and 2020.
“Poor old bugger,” Clarke said.
“If I can say anything – even though I would have liked to have been there, I’m glad I wasn’t there to see him pass, if you know what I mean.
“He was ready to go back to Biloela after he had been retrained.
“He would have had a forever home there on 20 acres – anyway, not to be.”
The Captain was an absolute star in the Top End from June 2018 until his final race in September last year having won 17 races from 36 starts, which also included nine minor placings.
Debuting at Fannie Bay as a five-year-old for Cranbourne trainer Richard Laming five years ago, the gelding raced at 0-76 level for a sixth over 1000m, a second over 1200m in July and a third over 1300m in the Darwin Corporate Park Cup in August.
It was following the 2018 Darwin Cup Carnival that The Captain remained in town when Clarke purchased the horse.
The Captain’s passing will also be felt heavily in Tasmania.
The son of Captain Gerrard kickstarted his career in June 2015 and raced exclusively in the Apple Isle for trainer Scott Brunton, based at Seven Mile Beach some 20km east of Hobart.
He had his last race for Brunton in March 2018 and wound up in Victoria before Laming gave The Captain a taste of the Fannie Bay dirt three months later.
After leaving the Laming stable, the horse had a further 33 starts for Clarke in the NT from September 2018 and went on to have 17 wins, four seconds, a third and two fourths from 28 starts in Darwin, and five starts for two thirds in Alice Springs.
The Captain was an absolute sensation for Clarke in the Top End from 1000-1300m, with the trainer rating the gelding as one of his best-ever horses.
His large margin of victory at times was breathtaking.
Just about unbeatable at weight-for-age level in Darwin, The Captain was 10 years young when he won his final race in his 70th career start on September 3 at open level over 1300m when he overcame stablemates Syncline – Darwin’s Horse of the Year for 2022 – and Patria.
The Captain wins his last start – September 3, 2022
He was a 98-rater in his final appearance in the spring and constantly carried the big weights, and in late 2020 he lumped 65.5kg on two occasions en route to victory over 1100m.
“One of the most honest and hardest trying horses you’ll ever see – they don’t come around too often horses like that,” Clarke said.
“He used to just get right down low, pin his ears back, stick his head out and go as hard as he could.
“If something beat him, they were just too good for him because he’d go 100 per cent every time.
“He was one of the crew, he’d been with us for quite a while – he was everybody’s pet.
“He just loved his job, that’s why he kept racing successfully right up until he was 10-year-old.”
The Captain had contested the $135,000 Palmerston Sprint (1200m) in Darwin and the $100,000 Pioneer Sprint (1200m) in Alice Springs – the two feature races in the NT for the speedsters – for the past four years without success.
He finished second (2020) and fourth (2022) in the Palmerston Sprint, and third (2019) in the Pioneer Sprint.
In 2019, The Captain was also named as the Top End’s Sprinter of the Year and Out of Carnival Performer of the Year.
The gelding picked up the Out of Carnival Performer of the Year award in 2021 and amassed $452,811 in career prizemoney.
More horse racing news
