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Crosby bred for success
Captain Shuffles will always hold a special place in Ben Crosby’s heart, giving the young harness trainer his first Group 1 success when taking the $106,090 QBRED Triad Final in race record at Albion Park last month.
“It was a big thrill, for sure,” he says humbly. “I thought he would run well but for him to lead all the way and absorb the pressure in a big race like that was certainly very satisfying.”
A son of American pacer-of-the-year Captaintreacherous, the first 2YO in history to win four sub-1:50 mile races, Captain Shuffles has had 11 starts for seven wins and has now won his last four in-a-row, including a victory at Albion Park on August 5 where he rated a career best 1:51.6.
Crosby, had his first starter in the 2019/20 racing season after taking over from his father Bill, and trained his first winner in 2020-21. Already this season with 37 starters, Crosby has trained 14 winners at 38% strike rate, with a further place strike rate of 27%. Taking Win/Place Strike Rate to 65%.
Little wonder he has Queensland Harness followers on full alert.
And Crosby is far from a one-trick pony, also putting the polish on the promising Frankie Ferocious, a pacer Crosby bred in partnership with his father and the younger brother of Captain Shuffles. “That is what we do, we do not train for outside stables,” Ben said. “We like to develop horses ourselves. Dad raced Morethanmeetstheye {dam of Captain Shuffles and Frankie Ferocious] after we purchased her as a weanling and she was a very good horse for us.”
Bill Crosby was a successful owner/trainer but in his own words “it was a hobby”. His 40-year-old son decided to step things up a notch or three when his father elected to retire from training and concentrate on the breeding side of the operation.
“We have been quiet over the last few years but we are building up nicely now,” Ben explains, the family always like to work around no more than 20 horses in their team, with 10 in work, preferring to keep the stable small and focus on juveniles they have bred themselves.
Crosby trains on the family property at Haigslea between Ipswich and the Somerset region in South East Queensland, some 55 kilometres south west of Brisbane and where the locals number just over 470.
“It suits me just fine,” Crosby says. “We’ve got our own track, a walking machine and we can do what we want when we want with the horses.”
With the family operation so invested in breeding their own horses, the success of Captain Shuffles and Frankie Ferocious is all the more sweeter and, as Crosby explains, it is not by accident.
“We definitely try to get ours up and running early as two and three-year-olds,” Crosby explains. “It’s not as lucrative as the older horse races but for us it means we find out quicker and because of our operation, the cost of keeping a horse for five years before testing it becomes prohibitive, especially if it turns out to be slow.”
“The New Zealanders have a more patient approach which is arguably why they do so well with their older horses.”
Being so involved in the breeding aspect, Crosby points out the improvement in standardbreds over the past three decades.
“The American influence on our bloodlines over the last 20 years has been significant - our best times are down some 10 seconds on where they were 20 years ago and I don’t think you can say that about the thoroughbreds.”
“With that the stock has changed as well and we have to train differently, I don’t think we can train them as hard as we would have done once as they seem to be a more refined type of horse with the breeding but I don’t think that is a bad thing.”
Crosby feeds Synergy as well as steam flaked barley and while the results on the track speak for themselves, he speaks from experience.
“Synergy is the best feed we’ve used and we’ve tried them all,” Crosby says. “We even made our own for a while but I’m more than happy with Synergy.
“It’s a complete feed, it has everything you need in it and the horses love it and thrive on it.”
With things looking settled on the home front, Crosby is contemplating heading south next year with stable star Captain Shuffles to add to his record of seven wins from 11 starts in New South Wales.
“I think he’s good enough but we’ll see how he is and make a decision around Christmas time. I’m pretty confident he will measure up but we will see.”