INTER Dominion winner Don Hugo has returned home for an easy week after his close-up fifth in the Hunter Cup.
Trainer-driver Luke McCarthy was pleased with the five-year-old’s performance, given the step-up class to take on the two best pacers in this part of the world, Leap To Fame and Swayzee.
Don Hugo, who had the one-one sit on Leap To Fame for much of the gruelling 2760m race, was beaten just 6.1m.
“He went good,” McCarthy said. “We always knew it was going to be harder again, but he wasn’t far away and it gives us confidence heading towards a Miracle Mile now.”
“He’ll have this week off and his next run will be the (qualifying) sprints the week before the Miracle Mile (March 1).”
It will see Don Hugo return to Menangle where he’s landed his two biggest wins in the TAB Eureka and Inter Dominion final.
Trainer-driver Brad Hewitt said Captains Knock, who finished right alongside Don Hugo in sixth spot, has also taken his best pacer back home to his Goulburn stables.
Hewitt is lamenting what might have been in the Hunter Cup.
“My race totally changed just after the start when Chris (Alford) came out on Cantfindabettorman and took the spot we would’ve settled in,” he said.
“We’d have been much closer in the run and wouldn’t have had to go as wide making our run.
“I’m not saying we’d have won, but I’m sure we’d have finished within a metre of them.
“He went great considering and we can look forward to the Miracle Mile now.
“His next run will be one of the sprints the week before.”
Hewitt has also taken Great Southern Star runner-up The Locomotive back home instead of chasing the Group 1 Bruce Skeggs Trotters’ Cup at Cranbourne on Saturday night.
“We’ll set him for the (Hammerhead) Mile on Miracle Mile now and then he’s got the slot race (TAB Trot) over in Cambridge in April,” he said.
Hewitt said circumstances contributed to The Locomotive’s narrow defeat in the Great Southern Star final after a record-breaking heat win.
“I drove him mainly to beat Oscar Bonavena in the final because he went so well in his heat and lobbed into the one-one in the final, that’s why I got running around the last bend,” he said.
“I wasn’t worried about Queen Elida on my back. Hindsight is a great thing, but Oscar ran way below his best in the final and maybe I could’ve waited a bit longer before going home.
“It’s also worth noting we couldn’t get a lead-up race for him after a couple of them were scrapped and maybe if he’d had a run under his belt, it could’ve been the difference between holding on or not in the final. It was very close.”
Old marvel Max Delight is another who has returned to NSW to try and get a spot in the Miracle Mile.
He caught Hewitt’s eye in the Hunter Cup.
“How good is the old boy going?” he said. “Seriously, his run was amazing from so far back.”
Max Delight charged home from a clear last and was the widest running making his run to finish just 7.2m from Swayzee in eighth spot.
