Duffy will likely gun to the front with Serg

Ryan Duffy will likely be all guns blazing for the front when he and Serg Blanco (Bettor’s Delight) team up in the TAB Captain Sandy Free For All on Saturday night at Melton.

Duffy, who is driving for trainer and father Steve, will start from gate three with the six-year-old harness racing gelding.

“Looking at the draw I would say, straight off the paper talking to dad, that we would be leading,” Duffy told Toby McKinnon on SEN TrotsLife.

“Hopefully his fitness is where it needs to be, he is probably drawn to being in front.”

Duffy has marked the Andy Gath-trained Catch A Wave as a major danger, with last year’s Chariots of Fire and Miracle Mile champion also first-up from a little break.

“He is a champion horse, and he will need to run some serious sectionals outside him to beat him. If he comes with one run, he will hopefully be tired late,” Duffy said.

Serg Blanco has been hampered by illness in recent times, but Duffy is confident the son of Bettors Delight is ready to rock.

“He just had an underlying virus that they couldn’t get on top of,” he said. “I suppose when you’re at that level you need to be at 100 per cent every time you go around.

“He hasn’t actually lost a lot fitness wise and work wise, it’s just this underlying issue that we had to get over before we were 110 per cent happy to race him.”

The Jess Tubbs stable will have two runners in the field with Triple Eight (four) and La Captain (two) to start either side of Serg Blanco.

Catch A Wave has gate seven for what is his first run back since the Geelong Rocket on February 23.

It was feared the millionaire pacer had badly injured a leg – maybe even broken a pastern – after finishing second behind Mach Dan, but it was revealed the problem was only a corn and abscess.

Catch A Wave trialled at Melton on March 12 in readiness for this weekend’s assignment.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Lachlan Mitchell, for Harness Racing Victoria