All guns blazing

The most powerful harness racing stable in the state goes into Saturday night’s massive meeting at Tabcorp Park Menangle with all guns blazing.

Besides supplying the favourites for all three round one heats of the TAB Inter Dominion Pacing Championships, Belinda and Luke McCarthy will dominate the early races as well, suggesting they could have one of their best nights yet at the south-western Sydney paceway.

Team McCarthy warms up in the opening race with three of the fancied runners in Mighty Looee (Luke), Ranger Bomb (John McCarthy) and The Croupier (Jack Callaghan).

They also have Kingmaker ($2.75) the favourite in Race 2, the first of three heats of the time-honoured Carousel series.

And just to keep the pot boiling, they have the well-backed Ilikemebettor ($3.50) in the second Carousel heat, with Luke aboard.

So, by the time he puts the hopples on the Inter Dominion favourite, King Of Swing in the first Inter heat, Race 5, McCarthy may well have a treble already in the ‘bank’.

He has already declared the two-time Miracle Mile winner ‘spot-on’ for the series and at his perfect weight to handle three heats and a Grand Final in the space of 15 days.

Belinda McCarthy also has the two favourites in Race 6, the second heat, in the form of Expensive Ego ($1.65) and Alta Orlando ($8) before even-money favourite Spirit Of St Louis attempts what may be a McCarthy hat-trick by taking out the third heat, after drawing perfectly in gate three.

One trainer not prepared to concede defeat is Hunter Valley horseman Roy Roots junior, who will take Len Smith Mile winner The Black Prince into the series with Menangle Park reinsman Robbie Morris aboard and looking to score some major points, despite drawing the outside of the second line.

“Look, it is a shocking draw,” said Roots.

“Certainly, it’s not the way you want to start an Inter Dominion.

“We’ll be relying a little bit on luck, but this horse is an opportunist who can make the most of any little bit of fortune that goes his way.

“If he sits back like he did last time around he will come home very hard.”

With Zeuss Bromac an early scratching from the series, leaving top trainer Paul Fitzpatrick without a runner, trainer Kevin Pizzuto and young reinsman Tom Ison will now line up in heat one with the well-performed former Kiwi pacer Arden Messi.

To view the fields for Menangle on Saturday night click here.

By Michael Court for HRNSW