CAPE CRUSADER REGAINS WINNING FORM

By Graham Potter | Saturday, September 12, 2026

The six-year-old Heroic Valour gelding Cape Crusader bounced back to winning form with a solid first-up performance which saw him claim his eighth career success when taking out the Gavin Pedler Memorial Open Handicap over 1400m at his home track at the Gold Coast on September 12.

Cape Crusader had struck a hot patch of form late last year when scoring back-to-back wins (at Grafton in a BM74 Handicap over 1620m in November 2025 and at Murwillumbah in a BM82 Handicap over 1550m in December 2025) … but that run of success was then brought to an abrupt and unfortunate end when Cape Crusader lost his rider in the Ballina Cup in January.

In his four runs since the Ballina Cup … and prior to this latest assignment (two runs over 1600m and two runs over 1800m) Cape Crusader put two third place finishes behind his name.

Tony and Maddysen Sears then gave Cape Crusader a four month break from race action and brought him back fresh over the shorter 1400m trip for his first-up assignment … a distance over which he had won on two previous occasions.

Cape Crusader, who filled the third line of betting at $6.60 and who had the 2kg claiming apprentice Jade Hampson in the saddle for the first time, settled in fifth spot, just worse than midfield in the early part.

Hampson moved Cape Crusader into fourth place at the start of the sweep to the home turn, but that still left the Sears trained runner five-and-a-half lengths adrift of the tearaway leader Atmosphere ($8), but only 1.50 lengths behind the race favourite Slippin’ Jimmy ($2.15), who Hampson was tracking, believing that Slippin’ Jimmy would take Cape Crusader into the race when the contest went on in earnest.

When Atmosphere came back to the field on the point of the home turn, the field bunched up and Flying Bat ($8) took over from the early leader (Atmosphere did try to fight back) … with Slippin’ Jimmy poised to strike now just a length off the new leader … and with Cape Crusader now literally right on the heels on Slippin’ Jimmy.

It was quite a slog home, but when Cape Crusader went past Slippin’ Jimmy with 120m left to run, it was clear that Flying Bat’s lead on borrowed time and Cape Crusader duly snared Flying Bat inside the final 50m while at the same time carrying enough momentum to hold off the persistent, game challenge of the $3.20 second favourite Deep Respect, who had chased the whole length of the straight hard to the outside and just behind Cape Crusader, keeping close company with Cape Crusader.

In the end, the winning margin for the Sears trained runner was 0.25 lengths, with Cape Crusader coming home under a ten out of ten ride by Hampson.

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