Butterworth “excited” by Capital Gain ahead of JJ Atkins

JJ Atkins betting Australia Doomben

RISING star Capital Gain is set to debut in group one company on Saturday at Doomben, and after a gear change and a number of promising runs, trainer Paul Butterworth believes his gelding is up to the challenge.

The promising two-year-old has had a glittering start to its career, placing in over half the races it has competed in, but the JJ Atkins represents a significant step up in class on what the horse has confronted.

Despite the daunting prospect of a group one field, Butterworth believes Capital Gain has what it takes to win the biggest race of its career.

“I’m pretty excited,” Butterworth told Horsebetting.com.au.

“He seems spot on. We’ve added the shades which have sharpened him up so we’re going in there with a realistic winning chance I reckon.”

Capital Gain is the $8 second favourite at Crownbet.com.au to win the Group One JJ Atkins on Saturday.

The addition of the blinkers is a gear change the trainer has toyed with for its last few runs, but Butterworth is confident they can bring success on Saturday.

I’ve been reluctant to put them on him because he’s been quite an immature sort of horse, so I didn’t want to put them on too early because I thought he would over-race,” the trainer explained.

“But he seemed to mature a little bit in the head.

“I said to (jockey Jim Byrne) ‘we’ll try them on the Saturday morning’ and he worked quite nice in them, and we put them back on him on the Tuesday and he worked terrific.”

The short-priced favourite is New Zealand import Melody Belle ($2.40 at Sportsbet.com.au), which was brilliant in its Australian debut on May 27.

Capital Gain finished fifth behind the filly on that day, but Butterworth thinks the gear change can bring about a change in fortunes when it matters most.

“Jimmy was pretty confident that’s what we needed to put on just to find that edge, because Melody Belle won pretty well the other day, so obviously we’ve got to find that little bit of edge,” Butterworth said.

The JJ Atkins will be the toughest race of the two-yea-old’s career and the fourth of the preparation, and Butterworth thinks it may be a stretch to expect the horse to battle on post-Saturday without a break.

“That’ll be it,” the trainer confirmed.

“We were thinking about a derby in Melbourne, he looks an ideal derby horse, but the horse has only had nine days off since his last race start.

“We’ve spoken to most of the owners and we’re pretty keen to give him a decent break and probably target something in the autumn.”

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