Don Hugo in courageous Inter Dominion win

Brilliant four year old Don Hugo (Art Major) capped off a wonderful year when he outstayed his harness racing rivals to take out the Group 1 $500,000 Inter Dominion Pacing Final at Menangle Park last night.

A solid favourite Don Hugo was expected to take the lead but instead driver Luke McCarthy elected to ease back allowing the pacy mare My Moonlite Dream to go to the front. Curly James moved up outside the leader to eventually take up the running and then McCarthy timed his run mid way to ultimately take the lead.

The West Australian star Minstrel moved up to take on the leaders. Both Max Delight and Terry who were back in the field started to creep into contention with Dangerous starting to paddle under pressure.

In a grinding finish Don Hugo held on from a very gallant Minstrel with the veteran Max Delight running the race of life for a close third ahead of Terry who also acquitted himself well.

Trainer driver Luke McCarthy was a happy man after the event.

“It’s a dream come true to win the Inter Dominion. I knew that Dani Roberts on Minstrel would be coming at some stage. I was just hoping I had enough in the bank. And Minstrel is tough but would come at us. He’s right up there with them and keeps getting better. When I saw how hard they were going at the beginning I decided to pull back and settle for a while”.

This ultimately proved to be a winning tactic as he was able to preserve his best until later in the race.

Winning owner Tony Licastro added:

“To win a prestigious race like this is a dream. It’s an honour. He’s just a champion horse.”

Don Hugo’s win in the Inter Dominion where he won two heats comes off the back of his success at the $2 million Eureka at Menangle in early September and increased his prize money to just under $1.8 million.

The brown entire will be freshened up before being set next year for the Hunter Cup and Miracle Mile. In addition he’ll also be prepared for the Inter Dominion next July at Albion Park.

Minstrel lost no admirers in coming second after a very tough run. He tried very hard in the home straight but could not quite overcome Don Hugo.

Captains Knock seemed to get into trouble when settling down after trying to get off the fence and that put paid to his chances although he still beat five runners home.

For complete race results, click here.

by Tony Milanese, for Harnesslink