Captain Nemo can bark out the orders again at Albion Park on Saturday night
Lincoln Farms’ warrior Captain Nemo looks well placed to score back-to-back wins at Albion Park on Saturday night.
Trainer Mark Dux reports the five-year-old has felt “a million dollars” since his courageous win last Saturday night.
And, after downing a band 5 field last week he drops to a weaker class of up-to-rating 80 horses, which will see him clearly the one to beat, says Dux.
“He’ll be a $2 favourite and rightly so. He’s the highest rated in the field and has been beating better horses lately.”
Nemo is eligible for the race only through the engagement of claiming driver Justin Elkins but Dux says he’ll lose nothing on that score.
“Justin has driven a few winners for me lately and he’ll listen and besides there’s nothing in the field to be scared of.
Laid-back Captain Nemo is doing just enough to hold his rivals last Saturday night.“More than likely he’ll cross from six and then he should win and, even if he sits parked, he’ll probably still win.”
Captain Nemo showed he was right back to his best last week when he worked hard to park before taking the lead at the bell and holding his opposition with a minimum of effort to take the 2138 metre race in a 1:55.6 mile rate.
He drops back to the shorter 1660 metres on Saturday, the distance at which he all but caught hot pot Targaryen two starts back in a 1:53.4 mile rate.
Earlier in the night Tommy Lincoln faces another difficult test, drawn four in the free-for-all class race against the better performed pair Turn It Up and Blacksadance. “Tommy just can’t get a draw. He won’t cross Deus Ex in in one but if he can get in front of the other ones inside him he should end up getting cover.”
Dux expects Turn It Up to use his superior gate speed to cross to the front and at some stage he says Blacksadance should roll round to be outside the leader.
“It will come down to how soon Tommy gets cover. I just hope Blacksadance comes early and not at the half. Tommy can sit parked but he’s not quite so effective there.
“With luck he can finish top three or four. He can’t be going any better than he is and they’re not lengths better than him.”
Last week Tommy ran out of his skin, powering up to find the breeze and fighting right to the wire just 2.5 metres fourth to Rock Bottom.
Tommy Lincoln races at 10.06pm NZ time at Albion Park on Saturday night.
Captain Nemo races at 12.36pm NZ time at Albion Park on Saturday night.
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Everything goes to script for new Gold Card member David Turner as Lincoln Wave swells
Our runners this week: How our trainers rate them

Nathan’s comments
Wednesday night at Cambridge
Race 1: Lincoln Maree
5.11pm
“She’s finding her feet and was a bit unlucky at Taupo. She put in a few rough ones out of the gate - she was like that early in her prep and could just jump out of it - but she’s generally doing things right now. She trained well on Saturday and, with the right run, could run top three.”
Race 3: The Night Fox
6pm
“He won really well on the second day at Hawera and if he races anything like he’s training he’ll be hard to beat. He ran a 27.3 quarter during the week and I was just sitting on him. I’ll tell Craig to go forward, set an even tempo and cut him loose at the 600. I think he’s our best of the night.”
Race 6: Lincoln Lover
7.35pm
“Hopefully he’s improved since Taupo when Fergie drove him a treat in front. I actually think he’s better coming off something’s back but I’ll leave it up to Fergie. He’s up a bit in grade but has the right draw to be in it all the way.”

Ray’s comments
Friday night at Auckland
Race 5: Lincoln Wave
7.32pm
“He had an easy run last week and he can go a lot faster than that. He should be hard to beat. It won’t matter if he doesn’t find the lead from six, he’ll be just as effective coming from off the pace. He’s a pretty classy horse, classier than most of those against him.”

