The Locomotive could be full steam ahead to New Zealand, Luke McCarthy wins elusive final and Cantfindabettorman gets some consolation in today’s wrap of the Inter Dominion Finals at Menangle.
By Adam Hamilton
Owner Glen Holland will look seriously at a New Zealand trip with newly crowned Inter Dominion winner The Locomotive.
Holland said now the $NZ650,000 TAB Trot was confirmed for Cambridge in April, it was a serious option.
Like Just Believe the past two years, The Locomotive made a clean sweep of the series, winning all three heats and the final, at Menanagle last night.
It was The Locomotive’s eighth successive win and gave Goulburn trainer-driver Brad Hewitt his biggest moment at his first drive in an Inter Dominion final.
“I’d never have thought it would come with a trotter, but it’s great,” he said. “You wouldn’t get an easier drive, either. He absolutely cruised in.”
The Locomotive worked forward to take the lead from Keayang Chucky and dashed clear late to win by nine metres in a 1min55.3sec mile rate for 2300m, with closing splits of 55.7 and 28.3sec.
Holland confirmed the five-year-old, who has been trained by Wayne Potter for much of his stellar juvenile career, would remain with Hewitt.
“He’s Brad’s now. Whether we go to the Great Southern Star, over to the big NZ or up to Brisbane for that next Inter Dominion in July (next year,” he said.
The Locomotive, a son of Muscle Mass, has raced 35 times for 22 wins and banked $485,758.
Keayang Chucky ran a sound second, but had his chance, while unheralded stablemate Keayang Stuka – the find of the series – smashed the clock from a mile back to finish a clear third.
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The Hunter Cup is the next big target for newly crowned Inter Dominion hero Don Hugo.
Trainer-driver Luke McCarthy said a “hit and run” trip on Victoria’s marquee race at Melton on February 1 was most likely.
“There’s a chance he could go to Ballarat, but more likely I’ll just keep him at home where he loves it and go for the Hunter Cup only,” he said.
McCarthy ticked the only missing big box of his career with a monstrous Inter Dominion pacing final win on Don Hugo at Menangle last night.
McCarthy added the iconic race to the Miracle Mile, Hunter Cup, Victoria Cup and TAB Eureka on his trophy cabinet and this time trained the winner himself, too. It was his 11th drive in a pacing final.
“It’s a great one to get off the Bucket List, it’s taken me a few goes,” McCarthy said.
Don Hugo capped a stunning rise to prominence, having burst into the big league winning the world’s richest harness race, the $A2.1mil TAB Eureka at Menangle back on September 7.
“He was good then, he’s better now. That’s the great thing, every time he goes out for a break he comes back better and he’s still only a four-year-old,” McCarthy said.
“If he keeps building, he’ll be up with the best I’ve driven. He has to be.”
Don Hugo, who survived a stunning slugfest with star WA warrior Minstrel over the last 700m, obliterated the track record with a 1min50.4sec mile rate for 2300m, taking a full second off the previous mark.
McCarthy, 42, has been a megastar of the sport for 15 years. He boasts almost 3000 wins, 80 at Group 1 level, plus a World Trotting Derby win in the US.
Minstrel’s effort for second was outstanding, while David Aiken’s remarkable rising nine-year-old Max Delight ran a terrific third.
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Champion driver Chris Alford was left wondering what might have been after winning the Inter Dominion pacing consolation on former Kiwi gelding Cantfindabettorman.
The Isabel Walsh-trained five-year-old was one of the stars of the first round of heats in the series, but didn’t handle the travel to Bathurst well on night two, which derailed his final hopes.
“He wasn’t himself in the race at Bathurst and then didn’t back-up a few days later in the last heat at Menangle, which cost us making the final,” Walsh said.
But Alford left nothing to chance by pushing forward to take the lead from gate four and dictating terms last night.
“Isabel and Pete (Walsh) have done a great job to pick him back up in a week and he felt a lot more like his best tonight,” he said. “He’d have been very competitive in the final at his best, but winning this (consolation) is a good result from where we were.”
Cantfindabettorman, raced by Diane Reilly who had 2022 Inter Dominion winner I Cast No Shadow, will now return to Victoria to lock horns with Tact McLeod and others in the major country cups ahead of the Hunter Cup.
