Bondi Lockdown to bypass Newcastle Mile

A last-minute change of plans will see harness racing boom pacer Bondi Lockdown (Somebeachsomewhere) bypass the Gr 1 Newcastle Mile as an entry point to the $1 million Garrards Miracle Mile on March 4.

A phone call between Victorian owner Aaron Dunn, and trainer Belinda McCarthy, resulted in a decision to pull the pin on next Friday’s (Feb 17) prestigious feature and the opportunity for early direct entry to the Miracle Mile, instead opting to wait another week.

“We just thought that we may have been asking a bit much of the horse with four runs in four weeks. It was always our plan to tackle Newcastle and then head to the Miracle Mile, but I’m happy to make a change,” Dunn, of Horsham, said.

“So Bondi Lockdown will now be aimed at the Schweppes and Allied Express Sprint at Menangle on Saturday week (Feb 25). Hopefully he does enough in that to get into the Miracle Mile seven days later (March 4).”

The top two placegetters in the $100,000 Sprint gain automatic invites into the Miracle Mile, along with the winner of the Newcastle Mile, the winner of the Chariots of Fire (Feb 19).  The balance of the field is made up from horses in any of those races.

Dunn said Bondi Lockdown’s driver Luke McCarthy was also in favor of aiming to the Sprint.

“Because of the way Bondi Lockdown has performed at the Menangle circuit in his two starts – Luke was very happy with the way he won on Saturday night,” Dunn said.

“Luke told me the horse was low flying over the final stages. He was delighted with the run. And probably even more so that he pulled up magic.

“When he got back home, he had 20 minutes in the water walker and Luke said he didn’t leave a crumb in his feeder.”

On the strength of a remarkable last start win, Bondi Lockdown is now clear second favorite at $4.50 behind the brilliant Captain Ravishing at $2.60. All going to plan, the stage is set for a promotor’s dream in the Miracle Mile: the first time that Bondi Lockdown and Captain Ravishing will have clashed in a race.

Dunn sent Bondi Lockdown (Somebeachsomewhere) to Belinda and Luke McCarthy at Cobbity Equine Farms after the pacer was found to have bled when unplaced in the TAB Smoken Up Sprint at Melton on October 1. Stewards stood him down for three months.

The five-year-old won a trial at Menangle on January 18 and then 10 days later at his first race start back was super impressive when making up a huge amount of ground to finish second to Spirit of St Louis at Menangle. But his win last Saturday went up more than a few notches— sensational considering the closing sections of 27.6 and 26.7 in an overall time of 1.50-5.

“When they did a slow 29.5 quarter, I knew they’d up the tempo from there. I know he got a good cart into it, but he still had to sprint past some good ones,” Dunn said.

Dunn said his plans for the coming weekend were now a little “up in the air”, but he’s relishing the opportunity ahead to get trackside to watch his horse.

“I’ve booked air flights for a mate and myself to get to the Newcastle meeting on Friday and then the Chariots of Fire at Menangle the following night. We’ve got to have a chat about it, but we’ll probably still go up,” Dunn said.

“Then we’ll be back up there the next weekend to watch ‘Carl’ (Bondi Lockdown) in the Sprint. It’s a little tricky because I’ll have to be back on the Sunday for a joint family birthday—my brother is 50 and dad has an 80th birthday.

“It hasn’t been easy to watch him in his two runs for the McCarthys—the first time we were camping at Lake Bolac and I watched on my phone.

“And on Saturday my partner Tracy wanted to go to a music festival in Beaufort where she grew up and I planned to go to a pub there and watch the race, but it was closed!  With so many people in town for the festival, it was impossible to get any coverage either, so Tracy’s dad picked me up and we ended up going back to their place and watching it on an IPad!”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink