Swansong campaign beckons for King Of Swing

Superstar pacer King Of Swing is being freshened up for his swansong campaign.

His owners spoke after the stallion ran fifth as favourite in last Saturday night’s Inter Dominion final and mapped out the twilight phase of his racing career.

WA-based part-owner Glen Moore confirmed King Of Swing’s quest for a Miracle Mile three-peat would be his final race start.

“He’s having a few days off and then he’s back into it,” Moore said.

“He’ll go down to Melbourne for another go at the Hunter Cup and then he’s back to Luke and Belinda’s for the Miracle Mile. He’ll be retired to stud after that.”

Co-trainer and driver Luke McCarthy is yet to decide when and where King Of Swing will race in the lead-up to the Hunter Cup on February 5.

“He’ll have a run, maybe the week before. That’s worked well for him before,” he said. “We’d prefer to give him that run up here and just go straight down and back for the Hunter Cup.”

The $1 million Miracle Mile is at Menangle on March 5.

King Of Swing, like all Miracle Mile hopefuls, will need to qualify through one of the two lead-up sprints at Menangle the week before.

So, it seems he will race four more times.

King Of Swing has raced 78 times for 40 wins, 18 placings and earned $2,490,246. Bred by Breckon Farms and initially trained by Ray Green, the now six year-old (Rocknroll Hanover – Twist And Twirl) won seven times from 13 starts in this country ($236,244)  before heading to Australia in March 2018.

Remarkably, his fifth in last week’s Inter Dominion final was the first time in 29 starts for Team McCarthy he has finished further back than third.

“He just had no hope the way the race was run,” Luke McCarthy said. “All the horses who beat him home were on the marker pegs. You can’t cover ground when they run home in those sorts of times.”

HRNZ