From HarnessLink (Tony Milanese, published 5 July 2026)
Brilliant mare Captains Mistress (Captaintreacherous) scored one of her most memorable wins in her star studded career when she put her harness racing rivals to the sword in taking out the Group 1 2026 $300,000 Rising Sun for three and four year olds. And in doing so she has earned a start in the $1 million Inter Dominion Pacers Final to be run on 18 July.
The race was full of depth with the presence of New Zealander Marketplace and star three year old Hollywood Strip.
Drawn in barrier three Captains Mistress was driven out by Cameron Hart but had to go full pace to hold out noted speedster Final Addition. Marketplace was caught wide from barrier six with Luke McCarthy looking to get across.
However when Double Lou made a run three wide Marketplace followed and eventually went outside the leader before taking a sit when the three year old Hollywood Strip raced up alongside Captains Mistress.
But despite setting such a hard early pace Captains Mistress got into high gear along the back straight to leave her rivals standing with a third quarter in 27.5 seconds with a final quarter in 26.9 seconds.
Captains Mistress was in full flight down the home straight and she simply cruised to the line seven metres ahead of a gallant Marketplace with Hollywood Strip holding on gamely for third. Although Marketplace did get a trail for the final lap he had to work very hard early out three wide while the field in front was setting a blistering pace.
In rating 1.50.3 Captains Mistress smashed Leap To Fame’s standing record.
Driver Cameron Hart extolled his praise for Captains Mistress
She does things that any other horse that I’ve driven can’t. it’s such a great feeling to roll those sectionals the whole way and just sprint off it the way she did, Doing it all on her own in front she’s just got a big heart and a mind that wants to go faster.
She’s got everything I was pretty confident that we could hold the front I didn’t want to get her beat in races where I would overdrive her early. Tonight with the quality of the field we had to use the gate speed and the draw and it worked out for us.
She’s lovely to do anything with and even down the back tonight she’s just got such great horses around her and she’s just pulling at the 500 metres just the speed she possesses it’s wicked.
Hart indicated that he would drive Captains Mistress in the Inter Dominion Final.
I wouldn’t swap her for anything obviously Larry is a champion and everything he has done has been unbelievable and huge respect for him. But it would be nice to take him on and we’ll see how we shape up.
It’s been a big build up today, it’s been a big target of ours for a while now. And once the field was drawn the quality that was there. It was a bit of a relief going past the line to get the job done when she was expected to win.
But full credit to a lot of runners in that race a lot of them raced huge and a big thanks to the connections of Marketplace to bring him over. He added a lot to the race thought he was a big danger on paper and he raced really well.
No doubt Captains Mistress will face her biggest test when she faces the Inter Dominion Final especially against the likes of Leap To Fame and The Janitor. But her breathtaking speed will serve her even over the testing 2698 metre journey.
