27 November 2017 | Terry Neil
DRIVER Luke McCarthy doesn’t get back to his old hometown nearly as often as he would like but those infrequent visits usually involve success on the track as well as catching up with his extensive family.
So last Wednesday’s trip over the mountains to Bathurst, which resulted in a double from three drives for the Craig Cross stable, was pretty much stock standard stuff.
Both winners maintained impressive strike-rates, Blackened NZ taking his record to four from fiv in an R1 sprint and Rocknroll Dude remaining undefeated in two career starts after taking out the second division of this class three races later.
Blackened rated 1:55.1 in his front-running effort, but what was particularly noteworthy was his 27.1 seconds closing quarter which gave Mackeral, El Gran Señor and the rest of the pack no chance at all.
McCarthy rates the three-year-old very highly, and expects him to step up to some better-class races as the season unfolds.
His dam, The Blue Lotus, is a half-sister to champion juvenile and now promising sire Tintin In America, a close relation of Elsu, so the Shadow Play colt looks to have inherited some of that family’s exceptional ability.
Rocknroll Dude’s win was contrasting but equally meritorious.
The Rock N Roll Heaven four-year-old, drawn on his own on the second line, settled towards the tail before trekking three-wide from the 700 metres point and displayed both high speed and a measure of toughness to score strongly from Studleigh Kristen and Walk On Kimmy.
He, too, boasts a strong maternal family. His dam Dream Royale NZ was a prolific racewinner for the McCarthy family when they were based at Albion Park, and they rated her highly enough to take her to Melbourne for a tilt at the Queen Of The Pacific open-class mares classic.
Luke McCarthy spoke of his intention to bring stable star Bling It On – whose brilliant return to racing after career-threatening injuries earlier in the year “meant more to me than his Hunter Cup win”- to Bathurst for the $50,000 Group 2 Shirley Turnbull Memorial, the feature of the Carnival of Cups meeting on Boxing Night.
It’s quite possible that he’ll line up Blackened in the night’s other feature, the Ray and Olive McCarthy Memorial, a prestigious three-year-old race which honours his late, much-loved grandparents.
Luke has been a huge fan of the new Bathurst track since its inception in 2014, rating it again last week as “the best 1000 metre track in Australia” but when he returns on Boxing Night he, like the rest of us, will have to become accustomed to its new name and signage, as “Bathurst Gold Crown Paceway”, a natural fit for the home of the long-running juvenile classic.
In the meantime, focus will be on the Bathurst RSL- sponsored Soldiers Saddle Series for C1/C2 emerging talent, with heats this week leading into next Wednesday’s semi-finals and a $15,900 final on Friday December 15.
And then to that enormously popular Boxing Night celebration.
As Luke himself might say, “Bling It On!”
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