6 December 2019
By Michael Guerin
Champion NSW driver Luke McCarthy says he is going to ignore his precarious position on the points table with Bling In On at the Inter Dominions tonight.
The Victoria Cup winner goes into the last round of heats at Alexandra Park in Auckland in 13th equal position trying to earn a spot in the 12 for next week’s NZ$500,000 final.
He has been luckless in the series, over-racing on the first night after striking his sulky wheels disks while on night two on Tuesday he was locked away on the fence until the race was over.
But McCarthy says he is happy with his horse and has to treat tonight’s qualifier at 7.24pm like any other race, knowing a top six finish should get him into the final.
“I have to just drive him how he feels and not try and drive him to run top six,” McCarthy told the Telegraph.
“Obviously I’d love to win but it will be a really tough race cause I think Cruz Bromac will lead and hand up to Thefixer and then we all might struggle to beat them.
“And if they control the race from the front end then I don’t want to be back in the field when the sprint goes on.
“So I won’t be negative and try and run on to get the points we need, I will drive it like any other race and try and get as close as we can to the main dangers and go from there.”
Heading into tonight’s first round of two pacing and two trotting heats Australia looks likely to have three pacers in their final next Saturday and two trotters in their NZ$150,000 final.
But it is getting increasingly harder to see an Australian winning either title as several key NZ pacers have really hit their straps.
Ultimate Sniper has been so stunning winning both his heats after being three wide for the majority of the race that he is now even money with TAB for the final.
His driver Natalie Rasmussen admits he has replaced Cruz Bromac as their stable’s top chance in the series.
“When you go to an Interdom you usually find one or two horses who thrives and love the series and he is that horse,” says Rasmussen, who drove Blacks A Fake to win four pacing finals.
He should win tonight’s first pacing heat even if he has to sit parked while if Thefixer is able to wrest the lead off Cruz Bromac in the other heat it should set up a decent drag race down the home straight.
Punters looking for value tonight should try Massive Metro (R9, No.5) in the last heat as he is perfectly suited to the 2700m mobil which he holds the national record for.