Eye Keep Smiling - Photo Dan Costello
IT is a busy and exciting week for champion trainer-driver Luke McCarthy.
His latest pacing superstar Kingman returns to racing in Saturday night’s $75,000 Group 2 Bendigo Cup (1609m).
And today (Wednesday), his mighty mare Eye Keep Smiling sharpens up for her own trip down to Victoria with a Menangle trial.
But McCarthy’s reigning Miracle Mile winner Don Hugo won’t be joining his stablemates in Victoria.
“We’re really focused on defending his Miracle Mile crown, so we’re freshening him up now and then we’ll pick some Menangle races to get him ready for that,” he said.
“We learnt from last year when we probably chased a few too many races with him.
“We’re going to be more selective this time and the Miracle Mile is such an ideal race for him.”
McCarthy and owner Tony Licastro finalized the plan after Don Hugo’s fighting second to champion stayer Swayzee in last week’s epic Goulburn Cup.
“He went great, but Swayzee was out of this world,” McCarthy said. “It’s a chance to freshen our guy now with the Miracle Mile in mind and then he’s got that slot into the Nullarbor in Perth, too.”
Australia’s champion mare Eye Keep Smiling is back after a brief stint in the breeding barn and an unsuccessful attempt to use the embryo transplant process to make her a mum for the second time.
Her first foal, a Bettors Delight colt, will be sold at the Sydney Nutrien sales in March.
Eye Keep Smiling will continue her charge towards topping $1 million in prize money when she chases a three-race mares’ series in Victoria in coming weeks.
She has raced 40 times for 28 wins, five seconds, a third and banked $805,283.
Eye Keep Smiling won 12 of her 16 starts last season and hasn’t raced since finishing third against the boys with a huge run in the Group 1 Len Smith Mile on September 6.
“She’s come to hand really quickly,” McCarthy said. “She’s actually been ready to go for a month or so, but there’s been no suitable races for her.”
Her three Victorian targets are the $50,000 Group 3 Make Mine Cullen (Ballarat, January 24), $50,000 Group 3 Angelique (Cranbourne, January 31) and the $150,000 Group 1 Queen of the Pacific (Melton, February 14).
