Bring on the 3000!

Victorian harness racing driver Grant Campbell cannot wait to see what The Penny Drops can produce in Saturday night’s $145,500 Inter Dominion Trotting Final at Menangle.

After securing his spot into the Grand Circuit event with a strong heat win at Newcastle tonight, Campbell’s only request heading into the Group 1 is it for it to be longer than 3009m.

“It’s not long enough!,” said Campbell.

“He loves it, he sat in the death in 3200m at Kilmore and was only getting warm in the last lap so he will relish the 3000m.”

The Penny Drops, a popular son of Danny Bouchea, was the fastest trotting winner out of the two heats this evening rating the 2030m event in 1:57.0.

Drawing well in barrier two, Campbell positioned the five-year-old gelding in the one-one while Illawong Stardust led from barrier three.

The quarters were 30.0, 30.4, 28.5 and 28 seconds.

“We looked after him a bit at Bathurst and it was nice to give him a good blow out tonight,” said Campbell.

“I was really happy with how he trotted into the first corner, he was nice and keen early and I was thinking of popping out to the death as he does race well there but we were getting a decent run where we were so we sat there for a while and he did the job.”

Trained by Ray Harvey, The Penny Drops heads into Saturday night’s Final as one of the main fancies after beating his fellow Victorian rivals Kyvalley Chief and Just Believe.

Watch how the race unfolded:

Click here for tonight’s Newcastle results.

By Amanda Rando for Harnesslink